Last Post for the semester, I think

Oops, it appears that I did not post last weekend.  I assume this will be the last week to post since I have completed all assignments for the semester.  I took some time to review Amy's last email and complete updates.  These updates included adding the title to each page and reviewing chapter 1 to make sure all paragraphs are indented.  I also place page numbers in the Table of Contents. 

Now I will take time to work on collecting the lessons from the teachers that contain student web based projects.  I will also try to observe some teachers utilizing technology during their lessons and rate based on rubric I created (hopefully they'll be doing this during my lunch or prep time!). 

One last thing will be to continue to collect sites and apps to include in the portal.  Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.

The light at the end of the tunnel

Oh yes, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  This past week I spent a few hours on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings working on comments from Amy to update chapters 1&2.  Then after that, I finished chapter 3 and took a stab at starting the Abstract. 

I spent the morning at Alyssa's baby shower.  What a nice time.  I wanted to take the night off but remembered that I needed to blog so signed on for this and that's it tonight.  I  will take some time this week to read comments and make changes to Chapter 3.  Then last thing to do is fix the Abstract and the reflections part due 11/26.  I will also be calling in tomorrow at 6:45 to talk to Amy.

Am looking forward to taking my time at night, once the semester is over, to start working on the portal of eligible sites and apps and starting to collect the lessons that contain student web based projects.  After those are done then I will start thinking about doing some observations.

Have to keep plugging along - don't stop just because the semester is over - it will make the next semester that much easier if I have a lot of the work done before the semester starts.

Time to get back to work

Well, this past week was a welcomed break from the daily grind.  I got to spend some quality time with my sister, brother in law, and nieces in California.  I did not think about work, school, or on anything from Jersey for an entire week but now it's time to get back to reality.

I actually spent about an hour on the flight home sketching notes on a napkin - what to include in the rubrics for the teacher evaluation and the student project evaluation.  I also came up with a few questions to include on the follow up survey.  Saturday night I reviewed Amy's comments on work already handed in but decided to go ahead and start Chapter 4.  I spent 3 hours on Saturday working on that chapter and then another 2 this morning creating and inputting the rubrics into the paper.  I tried to look up some examples of already created rubrics on line but most are project specific and are geared toward student work and not teacher evaluations.

I am not ready to forward this chapter for grading yet because I want to re-read tomorrow night.  I am also going to review the comments by Amy and fix what needs to be fixed in Chapters 1 & 2 this coming week.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in class tomorrow and talking about Chapter 4 contents to make sure I am on the right track. 

I have reviewed all my grades to date and all are in sinc with the exception of 18 points that should have been given for "Conduct Needs Assessment" - Oct 2-25.

Almost Vacation Time

I have to say that I have not kept track this week of the time spent on activities but did put about 10 hours in.  I worked on fixing Chapter 2, continuing to work on Analyzing needs assessment data, writing the goals and objectives section, and the Learner/Context analysis. 

It has been extremely difficult to obtain a good sample of face to face surveys with teachers at school.  I am going to try my best to get as many as I can within the next 2 days but between my schedule this year, teachers working through lunches to complete lunch bunches with students and everyone running in circles to get their SGO's approved, time is extremely tight.  I may have to take that out if I do not receive enough response.

I have to say that I am extremely excited to be less than a week away from spending some quality time with my sister, brother in law and 2 nieces in California.  Since the last time I have been out there, my older niece has gotten her permit (oh boy, it should be fun driving with her), my younger niece has made the cheer squad at high school and I will get to see her cheer at a high school football game and they have moved to a new house!  Oh, and the weather is in the lower 80's - the week will fly by!

Chapter 2 - not at all fun

10/19 - So here I am at 11:30 on a Saturday night sitting in my living room after 4 hours of working on finishing chapter 2 and checking my references and starting my Table of Contents.  In addition to tonight, I also put in 3 hours on Wednesday.  Was going to continue on Thursday until I went to sign on and my laptop froze.  So, instead of working on Chapter 2, I took the time to start to analyze the data from my survey.  Did a tally chart and now have to go back and look to see what the results are with respect to iPad usage and laptop usage in the classroom. 

Thank goodness that the very smart man at Staples was able to fix my computer within about 20 minutes on Friday afterschool. 

Will take a little time tomorrow to continue to review the survey data and possibly start to add tables to Chapter 1.

Enough for now though!  Have to say that I did enjoy my day today at the Cranberry Festival in Chatsworth.  It was great to get out, walk around and see all the vendors, eat some food and enjoy the day.

Columbus Day Weekend

10/13 - Ok, so I thought I would be spending time tonight finishing reading my articles for chapter 2 of my paper.  Plans changed though because I forgot this was a long weekend for most (not us) and have to spend my the evening with all my "Summer Friends" that are down closing up their houses this weekend. 

Thank goodness I did spend about 3 hours this morning reading and taking notes on 4 articles.  Will just have read the remaining articles this coming week and work on Chapter 2 after.  Have seen that there are similar thoughts in the 4 articles that I have read so far. 

Have to say that the trip to Boston for EIE training was very helpful but I could have done without that drive home - usually takes about 5 hours but with traffic on a Friday and this darn holiday weekend it took 8 hours to get home................YUCK!!!

A busy upcoming week

10/5 - So, it's Saturday night and I have submitted my article critique and have re-submitted my assessment tools and am blogging.  Would like to get a jump on next weeks reading tomorrow since I will not have much time this upcoming week to work on "Big Girl School Stuff".  That's how I refer to our classwork!  We have class on Monday, Tuesday I have an "Open House" at School to introduce the parents of the 3rd and 4th graders in G&T to the new program and then I leave for Boston on Wednesday afterschool.  I am attending training for the new G&T program up there.  I will not be back until the weekend.  Boy this coming week will just fly by! 

I have already read chapter 5 while trying to complete portions of the article critique.  So will now get a jump on Chpts 6&7.  I want to also get started interviewing teachers and reviewing the results of my survey.

Enjoying Sunday evening - for once

9/29 - What I nice feeling it is to have Monday's work done before Sunday evening.  I was had to call helpdesk at Stockton to ask why I was having problems opening articles.  They couldn't help me so they transferred me to someone in the Stockton Library.  What a breath of fresh air it was for someone to take the time and actually help me!  She explained that if you search through Summon, many of the articles are not available through Stockton.  She walked me through which Database to tap into (Ed Research Complete) and how to pinpoint what exactly I was looking for.  YEH!!!!!

Then it took a about an hour to review, print, and email the APA version to myself.  I then spent another hour reading and highlighting pertinent data to sight in my paper.  I then spent about 2 hours Friday night fixing and adding sources to my topic paper and needs assessment plan.  All I had to do Sunday was re-read, send and add another post to my research blog. 

I am taking the night off to watch the first episode of Amazing Race and get a good night sleep.  The wedding the past weekend in Cape May was great but need to get ready for school tomorrow so will pick this up tomorrow after school.

I will use the time we should have been in class to work on my evaluation of one of the research papers.

Total time spent this week had to be at least 5 hours

Moving right along, or so I thought!

9/24 - Took some time to review online examples of how they set up Needs Analysis section.  Then mirrored those and wrote mine.  Was a bit upset today at work as I wanted to get a head start on finding and printing peer review articles.  I went on the Stockton sight and put in some key words and found quite a few interesting articles.  After reading their summaries, I went to open the file and was unable.  I thought it was just the school security so saved and sent these papers to my gmail account to open once I was home and had no more luck there!  Will go to school tomorrow and pick the brain of Alyssa and Lindsey to see if they are having the same problems. 

THIS IS EXTREMELY AGGRAVATING.  I am trying to complete this weeks assignments prior to the weekend.  I will be in Cape May all weekend for a wedding and do not want to wait until Sunday evening to work on this.

I am hoping to open and read some peer reviewed texts so I can include some in my final, revised topic paper.  Will try to finish on Wednesday and Thursday so I can enjoy the weekend! 

Looking forward to seeing all my "restaurant friends" at the wedding - it's going to be held at the Naval Air Museum at the Cape May County Airport (cool idea)!

The Beginning of the End

Sept. 18th
Ok, first task, was to create topic idea - completed 45 minutes.  Thought it would have been easy to word this but got stuck on exactly how intervention was going to work.  Wrote a rough idea but need to put some more thought into how to fix this gap.  Next step is to complete syllabus quiz and Intro part of proposal - that will need to wait until tomorrow.  Need to sleep on this.