Web conference tonight was more connection issue than anything else. Am I the only one having issues staying connected once I'm in there? I think it reset itself about 10 times and twice I had to refresh the page. About all I heard/read was some ideas for community involvement that others are doing. I heard of the school within a school one with ninth graders and getting them to be more independent. I also heard some about dual language schools/classes. I think that's cool considering I spent almost 3 years in Japan (DOD schools) and know what a whole society doing multi-language schools can do. I will have to read the log to see what else I missed.
Next time I will have both computers loaded and ready so if one crashes I can try the other. Just to see if it's my computer or ISP since they have different ISP's. Well, off to do more homework .. and nine week grades .. cook dinner .. bathe the 3 yr old .. and ... well, I'm sure there's some other stuff I'm supposed to get done tonight as well! LOL Take care everyone!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Eh? What was that??
Tonight's web conference had a lot of technical issues. Between it randomly dropping connection and rebooting itself (nice that it did that actually), and the audio being out more than on, I didn't get a lot out of tonight's session.
There was more chat about the ILD, which I learned about last webconf. I had already emailed Dr. J about taking the class in June at Lamar. I also followed a posted link to the course calendar with dates. It's kind of daunting to think that by the end of this calendar year, I will have taken 6 more courses. I'm trying not to really think about that and how much time my new position at work is going to be in the Fall. Somehow, I will prevail. I don't want to scare myself by thinking about it, or I might panic ... and Dr. J doesn't want us to panic, so I just won't think about it! :-D
There was more chat about the ILD, which I learned about last webconf. I had already emailed Dr. J about taking the class in June at Lamar. I also followed a posted link to the course calendar with dates. It's kind of daunting to think that by the end of this calendar year, I will have taken 6 more courses. I'm trying not to really think about that and how much time my new position at work is going to be in the Fall. Somehow, I will prevail. I don't want to scare myself by thinking about it, or I might panic ... and Dr. J doesn't want us to panic, so I just won't think about it! :-D
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Web Conf Reflections
Seems I didn't do one last time. OOPS! I misunderstood the directions, or probably just didn't pay attention close enough. The last couple of web conferences were a little messed up with different links being posted and I joined the actual site late. I spent the first five minutes just reading the chat so I could catch up. It has gotten better as the correct links were posted today.
Since my last class introduced me to the whole concept of "web conference", I feel more comfortable in joining them now. I actually like them since we're not in a traditional setting where we can all see each other at every class. I also like the fact that I can get my questions answered in real time.
In tonight's web conference, Dr. Jenkins discussed when the midterm study guide would be posted and that he's instructed IA's to open the midterm early for those that need to take it early. Since I'm behind on this week's assignment due to my AR kicking off (see below), I asked for an extension so I'll be one of those taking the midterm on-time or last. Spring Break for me will be catching up and getting ahead again. I need to be ahead because my band has UIL contest on April 2, our last day of class. As Dr. Jenkins mentioned, "distress" tends to turn to disease and I've had enough of that! {I had my gallbladder removed in January} So, back to my homework!
Since my last class introduced me to the whole concept of "web conference", I feel more comfortable in joining them now. I actually like them since we're not in a traditional setting where we can all see each other at every class. I also like the fact that I can get my questions answered in real time.
In tonight's web conference, Dr. Jenkins discussed when the midterm study guide would be posted and that he's instructed IA's to open the midterm early for those that need to take it early. Since I'm behind on this week's assignment due to my AR kicking off (see below), I asked for an extension so I'll be one of those taking the midterm on-time or last. Spring Break for me will be catching up and getting ahead again. I need to be ahead because my band has UIL contest on April 2, our last day of class. As Dr. Jenkins mentioned, "distress" tends to turn to disease and I've had enough of that! {I had my gallbladder removed in January} So, back to my homework!
Friday, March 9, 2012
What a rocky start!
I kicked off the student survey part of my AR project today. I wasn't sure it was going to happen. My parent permission slips didn't get approved on time because my principal was in the hospital (he's ok now, he had a silent heart attack). So, they were approved a week late, got them translated into Spanish by two GREAT ladies in the office (one a former student) on Tuesday, printed and in the teacher's hands on Wednesday.
I learned from week 1 assignment in School Community Relations that some Hispanic people seem uncaring or aloof about their child's education when they really are illiterate. My school has an automated phone calling system that can send out a short message in, not only English and Spanish, but also text! So I asked my principal for permission to use this system (note: I need to add this to my plan). The office was expecting a lot of calls and I came in early Thursday morning to field those calls. There was only one. Success?
I thought I had everything in place. Glitches were bound to show up and boy did they!
- Friday (the day of the survey) was a half day. Traditionally we hold in 4th period. No one is using the computer lab during 4th period and I would have about 3 hours. Well. The schedule was changed at the end of the day on Wednesday to run our morning schedule! Now, not only would I not have the lab, but I would have classes to teach. Arg!
- Some teachers did not pass out the permission slips on Wednesday. They didn't pass them out on Thursday either. In fact, some where passing them out when I came by to pick up the students and their permission slips to take them to the lab. (my principal's comment was "welcome to my world")
- The plan was to put the link on this blog so that it would be easy to load each computer. Except, the computers wouldn't load this page. errrr
- Plan B - my assistant is a computer techie on the side. He loaded the link from the survey site on his zip drive and loaded as many computer he could before heading off to another campus to teach a class (I owe him at least a lunch). Except, see below.
- Between the slow processors on the lab computers (can you say it's long overdue for an update?), and the firewall on the school server, things went a LOT slower than planned. A 5 minute survey, if they read slow, was taking 15 to 20 minutes. Although, I do suspect a few dragging their feet because they didn't want to go back to class. For some, it just locked up as it was loading their next page. I didn't even get half of the classrooms done.
Major learning today:
1. "ctrl H" - brings up the history so I could reload the survey site quicker
2. The F5 key refreshes the screen and starts the survey all over again
3. The survey website is awesome as it tracked completed surveys as well as the incomplete ones. I can just take out the messed up ones that happened from resetting the webpages.
4. There's a reason technology needs to be updated more often.
I need to find more time to survey the other students that didn't have a chance to take the survey today. I need to go farther into the lists for my focus group because at this time, very few of the names I have, have turned in a permission slip. Some brainstorming with the school secretary has her looking into someone to run the lab for me on our next half day (two weeks) since I am out at a contest that day. Any student that is one of my students can take the survey during my class. I have no idea when I can do the focus groups and they are the critical point in putting the action into my research.
I have this week's reading to do for my class this time. My brain is gone for the night, so I will get to it in the morning. I hope everyone else is doing well on their AR.
I learned from week 1 assignment in School Community Relations that some Hispanic people seem uncaring or aloof about their child's education when they really are illiterate. My school has an automated phone calling system that can send out a short message in, not only English and Spanish, but also text! So I asked my principal for permission to use this system (note: I need to add this to my plan). The office was expecting a lot of calls and I came in early Thursday morning to field those calls. There was only one. Success?
I thought I had everything in place. Glitches were bound to show up and boy did they!
- Friday (the day of the survey) was a half day. Traditionally we hold in 4th period. No one is using the computer lab during 4th period and I would have about 3 hours. Well. The schedule was changed at the end of the day on Wednesday to run our morning schedule! Now, not only would I not have the lab, but I would have classes to teach. Arg!
- Some teachers did not pass out the permission slips on Wednesday. They didn't pass them out on Thursday either. In fact, some where passing them out when I came by to pick up the students and their permission slips to take them to the lab. (my principal's comment was "welcome to my world")
- The plan was to put the link on this blog so that it would be easy to load each computer. Except, the computers wouldn't load this page. errrr
- Plan B - my assistant is a computer techie on the side. He loaded the link from the survey site on his zip drive and loaded as many computer he could before heading off to another campus to teach a class (I owe him at least a lunch). Except, see below.
- Between the slow processors on the lab computers (can you say it's long overdue for an update?), and the firewall on the school server, things went a LOT slower than planned. A 5 minute survey, if they read slow, was taking 15 to 20 minutes. Although, I do suspect a few dragging their feet because they didn't want to go back to class. For some, it just locked up as it was loading their next page. I didn't even get half of the classrooms done.
Major learning today:
1. "ctrl H" - brings up the history so I could reload the survey site quicker
2. The F5 key refreshes the screen and starts the survey all over again
3. The survey website is awesome as it tracked completed surveys as well as the incomplete ones. I can just take out the messed up ones that happened from resetting the webpages.
4. There's a reason technology needs to be updated more often.
I need to find more time to survey the other students that didn't have a chance to take the survey today. I need to go farther into the lists for my focus group because at this time, very few of the names I have, have turned in a permission slip. Some brainstorming with the school secretary has her looking into someone to run the lab for me on our next half day (two weeks) since I am out at a contest that day. Any student that is one of my students can take the survey during my class. I have no idea when I can do the focus groups and they are the critical point in putting the action into my research.
I have this week's reading to do for my class this time. My brain is gone for the night, so I will get to it in the morning. I hope everyone else is doing well on their AR.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
First resistance to AR project
This really hit me by surprise. So much so, it's taken me over 24 hours to process it. Now, the thoughts are getting in the way of me getting my assignment done in the next class, so I thought I'd put them here (at least get it out of my head until I'm done with this week's assignment).
I was chatting with a staff member at my school asking for her help on a student incentive for my classes and I mentioned I was trying very hard to get things in place for the survey that is coming up for my AR. She asked what I was doing and when I told her, her comment was something like "that sounds like a bunch of malarky". I asked her to explain and she asked me if I just thought this up because I had to for my class, or if it was for real. This was a bad week for my school. A record number of fights and students being assigned to our alternative campus for other reasons. When I told her that maybe having the students give some input into the school would give them some ownership, and improve behavior (because we need to do something!), she was more agreeable.
I don't know if I won her over yet, but at least I feel like I won the skirmish. This week is going to be a "tie a knot in the end of the rope and HANG ON!" kind of week. And I'll try real hard to keep a smile on my face while doing it! :-)
I was chatting with a staff member at my school asking for her help on a student incentive for my classes and I mentioned I was trying very hard to get things in place for the survey that is coming up for my AR. She asked what I was doing and when I told her, her comment was something like "that sounds like a bunch of malarky". I asked her to explain and she asked me if I just thought this up because I had to for my class, or if it was for real. This was a bad week for my school. A record number of fights and students being assigned to our alternative campus for other reasons. When I told her that maybe having the students give some input into the school would give them some ownership, and improve behavior (because we need to do something!), she was more agreeable.
I don't know if I won her over yet, but at least I feel like I won the skirmish. This week is going to be a "tie a knot in the end of the rope and HANG ON!" kind of week. And I'll try real hard to keep a smile on my face while doing it! :-)
Friday, March 2, 2012
New Items on blog layout
I learned how to put links on my blog in a spot in my layout! I'm so excited! LOL
I am also learning how to put the link to my survey for my action research on my blog as well! I knew there had to be a way to survey the students without them having an email address. Look for more updates soon!
I am also learning how to put the link to my survey for my action research on my blog as well! I knew there had to be a way to survey the students without them having an email address. Look for more updates soon!
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