Not Understanding

In graduate school I thought the idea was to feel smart and to at least kind of understand the material, but when an article is 31 pages and I read 29 of them and STILL dont understand...its bad. The article was about cyborgs and feminism. I was totally lost the entire time and it made it worse that there was bad spelling and bad grammer. I wrote that in my paper, I am interested to see what my prof says.

As for other classes this week it has been interesting. In my portfolio class on Monday, we, for the second time this term, complained about the class and how we are not getting the physical product but rather a philosophical idea of what should be in them. Then on Wednesday when my supervisor/protfolio professor showed up in my practicum I showed him the product that I developed by myself on GooglePages. My protfolio on GooglePages is http://erickson.annie.googlepages.com you should check it out. He commented that he really liked it and would like to play around with it more. He also asked me what other things I could put on it. Why is the professor asking the student how to do it!?! Aparently I am now showing off my protfolio in class on Monday.

We then repeated our comments, in more detail, to our methods professor/program director. It was interesting to see her reaction because she was not quite aware of what we were doing in our other classes. Now she is.....

O well..back to the grind. Gotta get this homework done so I can play all weekend. GO DUCKS!

Sitting In Class

I'm sitting in class right now learning about puting digital video up on the web. Are they helping us? Nope, they are giving us ideas... they are telling us what we can do and how we should use it but are they helping us upload them? Not really.. sad times. Why am I talking all of these classes that give me the information but yet none of it is actual practice, especally on PCs.

But, I am excited to use this information in my maxi-unit for the video and keynote presentations for the school. This unit will be fun because it can help the students have the personal investment into the technology use.

So tired, yet I love having Eric staying with me. It is so hard to want to go to sleep with him there, because if I do that means it is just that much closer to him leaving once again. It is so much fun to have good conversations with him about my classes and about his. It is so amazing that we are so different yet we mesh so well.

Good day

Today was a good day. I taught my first whole group lesson to my fifth graders today. This is my first whole class with this particular class, I almost wasn't sure it was going to happen at all the way I was going. Only seven weeks left, which is a good and a bad thing. It's good because I am way excited to dive into student teaching, but it is a bad thing because my poor math kids today were wondering what kind of teacher they were going to have after me.
BUT! My lesson on Keynote went really well today, although a bunch of them knew Keynot already. I am totally interested to see the video and all the stuff that goes along with it. Although having no formal observation sheet was weird, I am excited. I think it went really well....
Time to head off and study both my school work and the links that have been provided to find information and technology.

Classes and Life

As a technology person I love taking tech classes... online classes they are great as well. But what do you do when an online professor does not post the assignments? I am an ed major, I love rubrics, I love direction and I love to get things right. I am taking an online class where I have no heard ANYTHING from the prof since the first (and only) face to face class meeting (that I missed most of...). There isnt even a discussion board for our next assignment...

As for the rest of my college life, it seems that I may have stumbled into getting my counter part at work into trouble. I came to work and talked to a friend who elerted me to a mistake that my co-worker made..so I pointed it out to the boss so that it could be corrected the next time my counter part was in the office. Then I proceeded to do my job, including looking up a phone number for my counter part that she "didn't have time to do" and that REALLY set my boss off. Aparently my counter part will now be having a disucssion with our boss "in the conference room." That's never a good thing.. I've only had one of those... aparently it's not professional to sit with your feet crossed on a chair at work..who knew?!? Gotta love having a job in a professional office..too bad I have leave at the end of December (due to student teaching).

E-Portfolio Class

Today as I sat in my E-portfolio class I wonder, how will life be in 20, 30 or even 50 years when the children I am teaching today become adults, parents, grandparents... Today we looked at a website called Secondlife. Aprently its this entire uinverse that is totally virtual. I feel so far behind already because this entire world lerks out there and I have no clue. The issue is, that like many other things, who really has the time or energy to live two lives, one real and one in secondlife.

When it comes to technology in educaiton, program such as second life, are taking over and being talked about as the next best thing. It is so hard for me to believe this and feel that it is important to an elementary school's curriculum. I feel like this class is geared toward high school and college rather than elementary. I believe no matter how technologically advanced any society becomes, elementary school is elementary school. It should be taught in a big classroom with lots of colors, personal one on one attention and so much more.

I guess I just want to learn the basics, a website with my portfolio on it, a portfolio I can put onto a cd. That's all I am loking for, yet I know what should go into a portfolio, I know why we should do portfolios yet I cant make one yet!!!

Me

My name is Annie and I am a 22 year old college student in Oregon. I am studying elementary education and technology in education.