Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Wedding planning + Microworlds Quilt = Super Saturday
What a day. First, my fiance, Elliot... time to start referring to him by name... and I went to have a tasting with our caterer today. They had a ton of food in this room. We had lunch, and waited... and waited... and waited... for everyone to finish asking the million questions they had (wondering who wants to marry these chicks...) and we had a chance to speak to the lady in charge. We have our food all booked up and it took about 10 minutes. Mexican... in true Brandy style. Then, on over to the bakery to select our cake: chocolate, a little vanilla layer and chocolate mousse. It's very nice looking and tastes darn good. You should ask Elliot, he ate plenty. ;)
Then, hours to work on my microworlds quilt. I had some difficulties, so I consulted with Todd who gave me some great tips. Although his tips worked, some of my classmates' codes were either lost somewhere and I couldn't find them, or they were too difficult to format and fix to work with my quilt. All in all, it took a couple hours and some tweaking... and it is now posted, turtle free, to my website.
http://students.pepperdine.edu/blfoster/OMEThome/fall07/index.html
Check it out!
Next, I started helping out with the Papert room on SL for our theorist project. Things are looking great. There is a large diagram to assist in the building and of course Todd and Brent working away like little elves.... oh... I guess Brent is an Elf. Hmmm...
Then, hours to work on my microworlds quilt. I had some difficulties, so I consulted with Todd who gave me some great tips. Although his tips worked, some of my classmates' codes were either lost somewhere and I couldn't find them, or they were too difficult to format and fix to work with my quilt. All in all, it took a couple hours and some tweaking... and it is now posted, turtle free, to my website.
http://students.pepperdine.edu/blfoster/OMEThome/fall07/index.html
Check it out!
Next, I started helping out with the Papert room on SL for our theorist project. Things are looking great. There is a large diagram to assist in the building and of course Todd and Brent working away like little elves.... oh... I guess Brent is an Elf. Hmmm...
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Exciting Tech. News YOU can't use. :-P
Hello friends,
I found out this morning that the two grants I wrote for were both selected and granted! This means...
I get a smartboard for my classroom and at least 1-2 projectors for the upper grade classes at my elementary school to share. YAY!
To jog some memories, for our gliffy technology project, I chose the smartboard. In addition, I wrote another grant for the projectors after reading the stories in Edutopia that pumped me up to get on the ball.
:)
Oh Happy DAY!
I found out this morning that the two grants I wrote for were both selected and granted! This means...
I get a smartboard for my classroom and at least 1-2 projectors for the upper grade classes at my elementary school to share. YAY!
To jog some memories, for our gliffy technology project, I chose the smartboard. In addition, I wrote another grant for the projectors after reading the stories in Edutopia that pumped me up to get on the ball.
:)
Oh Happy DAY!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
My Brain on OMET
Anyone remember that commercial about the brain on drugs... and then the guy fries an egg in a pan to illustrate that drugs fry your brain... well I think OMET does too.
My reflections:
638b: I am working, working, working away. I spent a good number of hours working on a lit. review that I have a feeling will be revised more than one time in the coming weeks. That makes me nervous. I have never been great at revising my work because I always feel like I did a great job. It's a tough process. I am also struggling through reading some of the books. I am all booked out for right now. I read a lot in the beginning and needed a little lull here. In addition, if I try to even think about sitting down to read (considering standing up), I will be asleep in a hot second.
664: I have enjoyed some of the adventures, but above all, I have enjoyed MicroWorlds the very best so far. I knew I would... considering that I had been messing around with it for awhile before we started up with it.
633: The Second Life project makes me anxious. I don't really know if we are going to be able to pull this off and make it as grand as we are hoping. I think we all want to do an amazing job, but are seeing the difficulty in distance learning as of now. Doing this project at VirtCamp seems like an easier task because we would all be in the same room. We are starting to see the major players in the program... especially on projects like this. Looking forward to beginning the building challenge. :) Turtles here I come!
My reflections:
638b: I am working, working, working away. I spent a good number of hours working on a lit. review that I have a feeling will be revised more than one time in the coming weeks. That makes me nervous. I have never been great at revising my work because I always feel like I did a great job. It's a tough process. I am also struggling through reading some of the books. I am all booked out for right now. I read a lot in the beginning and needed a little lull here. In addition, if I try to even think about sitting down to read (considering standing up), I will be asleep in a hot second.
664: I have enjoyed some of the adventures, but above all, I have enjoyed MicroWorlds the very best so far. I knew I would... considering that I had been messing around with it for awhile before we started up with it.
633: The Second Life project makes me anxious. I don't really know if we are going to be able to pull this off and make it as grand as we are hoping. I think we all want to do an amazing job, but are seeing the difficulty in distance learning as of now. Doing this project at VirtCamp seems like an easier task because we would all be in the same room. We are starting to see the major players in the program... especially on projects like this. Looking forward to beginning the building challenge. :) Turtles here I come!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Children are AMAZING
There are obvious reasons why one would become a "teacher." First, I believe we are all teachers in our own worlds. But for me, I actually chose it because I love learning and I love watching others enjoy learning. It had nothing to do with the kids being "cute"...
I digress... my best friend has a daughter, Gabrielle. Maybe the cutest thing in the world... but also a living terror. How is that possible!? Well, the other day, I was talking to her mom, Alison, and Alison gave the phone to Gabrielle. At barely 3 years of age, Gabrielle proceeded to have a full, intellectual conversation with me. Wait? When did that happen? Just a couple months ago, she couldn't even speak in complete sentences. Now, she makes connections (she realized it was my birthday and her friend Makayla's birthday on the same day) and told me all about why the pirates were amazing on the Disneyland ride.
Speechless. I love learning.
(some of my fav. photos of her Disneyland adventure attached)
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Technology Idiot
Hello everyone, I am a technology idiot.
Here is my story: My school was kind enough to purchase upper grade teachers laptops... one for each of us. Yes, they changed the operating system and the hardware, making it even impossible to change the time on our own computers, but at least we have laptops, right?
I Enjoy the leisure of now taking my grades home and not having to stay at school until 8:00 to finish my progress reports or print out 35+ pages of grades just to do report cards. So, yes, there are some great benefits. Well... except that not being able to use anything other than the grade program.
About 2 days ago, my computer stopped accessing the wireless (I bought a router, secured it... and bam... just like that.) in my classroom. I thought I broke the computer. So, my principal comes into my classroom to give me administrator privileges so I can change the time and download things, and I still couldn't access the Internet. I checked the firewall, disabled, still nothing.
I spend 2 hours trying everything I could think would possibly work, and my fiance comes to the rescue. In 2 minutes time (yeah, did I mention the TWO hours of agonizing...) he figures out the on my computer, in the middle where the computer connects from the screen to the keyboard, there is a touch sensitive keypad that can turn on/off the sound, the Internet abilities, and change the lighting. You ARE KIDDING ME. I've never seen that before.
I feel like a tech. idiot.
On another note, for your learning pleasure, there is the ability to change the built in mouse to a lefty function. :)
Here is my story: My school was kind enough to purchase upper grade teachers laptops... one for each of us. Yes, they changed the operating system and the hardware, making it even impossible to change the time on our own computers, but at least we have laptops, right?
I Enjoy the leisure of now taking my grades home and not having to stay at school until 8:00 to finish my progress reports or print out 35+ pages of grades just to do report cards. So, yes, there are some great benefits. Well... except that not being able to use anything other than the grade program.
About 2 days ago, my computer stopped accessing the wireless (I bought a router, secured it... and bam... just like that.) in my classroom. I thought I broke the computer. So, my principal comes into my classroom to give me administrator privileges so I can change the time and download things, and I still couldn't access the Internet. I checked the firewall, disabled, still nothing.
I spend 2 hours trying everything I could think would possibly work, and my fiance comes to the rescue. In 2 minutes time (yeah, did I mention the TWO hours of agonizing...) he figures out the on my computer, in the middle where the computer connects from the screen to the keyboard, there is a touch sensitive keypad that can turn on/off the sound, the Internet abilities, and change the lighting. You ARE KIDDING ME. I've never seen that before.
I feel like a tech. idiot.
On another note, for your learning pleasure, there is the ability to change the built in mouse to a lefty function. :)
Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Big Picture: A Short Video
For those of you who have read The Big Picture, here is a video about The Met.
It's really good and gives you a visual. There are students, Dennis Littky, the school, and some of those internships that you read about.
Good stuff. Makes me love the philosophy even more.
http://www.edutopia.org/met-passion-learning
Enjoy! I was impressed.
It's really good and gives you a visual. There are students, Dennis Littky, the school, and some of those internships that you read about.
Good stuff. Makes me love the philosophy even more.
http://www.edutopia.org/met-passion-learning
Enjoy! I was impressed.
Mathophobia: The Fear of Learning
As I read through Mindstorms by Semour Papert, I am reminded of something that occurs so often in our lives: creating a taboo for learning:
Papert addresses things we do as adults that alter, and in a sense, cause us to curse learning:
"I can't learn French, I don't have an ear for languages"...
"I could never be a businessman, I don't have a head for figures"...
"I can't get the hang of parallel skiing, I never was coordinated"...
Thinking and saying these types of phrases to ourselves and admitting them to others is simply a way of cursing ourselves from the ability to learn.
As I reflect on myself and my professional development, I see how important it is to avoid this mathophobic way of being and to open my mind up to the learning that could be.
Papert addresses things we do as adults that alter, and in a sense, cause us to curse learning:
"I can't learn French, I don't have an ear for languages"...
"I could never be a businessman, I don't have a head for figures"...
"I can't get the hang of parallel skiing, I never was coordinated"...
Thinking and saying these types of phrases to ourselves and admitting them to others is simply a way of cursing ourselves from the ability to learn.
As I reflect on myself and my professional development, I see how important it is to avoid this mathophobic way of being and to open my mind up to the learning that could be.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
One Golden Coin in a Pile of Coal
Not a terribly good analogy... but hear me out.
I have some cruel parents... but I have been blessed to have one set of amazing parents that truly are supportive of myself and their daughter. Haven't parents learned that I have their child's entire school year in my hands? Being respectful should be an obvious reply of gratitude.
The awesome "golden coin" sent me an email of links for projectors (I wrote a grant for one, but it was thoughtful of him to look out for me) and a link for a video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=362421849901825950&total=100&s
The video is fairly long, but inspiring. It speaks of virtual simulations (games, like Sims...etc) that get kids learning from where they are most interested and inspired. I feel like our world is headed in the direction of technology for students. Not for technology's sake, but for the mere fact that our kids are THERE. Every generation has their "thing" and I believe that if we want to grow with our students, and in their direction, we need to follow them where they are. Where they understand. Where they gravitate.
Anyway, this somewhat lengthy video is inspirational. I encourage you to play it in the background as you work if your time is short. He does have some PowerPoint slides that are worth mentioning if you do have 1.5 hours of dowloads to wait for or airplane time to pass. :)
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, dying of Pacreatic Cancer
Speech date: Sept. 18, 2007
I have some cruel parents... but I have been blessed to have one set of amazing parents that truly are supportive of myself and their daughter. Haven't parents learned that I have their child's entire school year in my hands? Being respectful should be an obvious reply of gratitude.
The awesome "golden coin" sent me an email of links for projectors (I wrote a grant for one, but it was thoughtful of him to look out for me) and a link for a video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=362421849901825950&total=100&s
The video is fairly long, but inspiring. It speaks of virtual simulations (games, like Sims...etc) that get kids learning from where they are most interested and inspired. I feel like our world is headed in the direction of technology for students. Not for technology's sake, but for the mere fact that our kids are THERE. Every generation has their "thing" and I believe that if we want to grow with our students, and in their direction, we need to follow them where they are. Where they understand. Where they gravitate.
Anyway, this somewhat lengthy video is inspirational. I encourage you to play it in the background as you work if your time is short. He does have some PowerPoint slides that are worth mentioning if you do have 1.5 hours of dowloads to wait for or airplane time to pass. :)
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, dying of Pacreatic Cancer
Speech date: Sept. 18, 2007
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