So close to the end!

Well...here we are at the end of an amazing journey. The biggest hurdle will be the exit interview on Friday...I think all will be well our group has split up what we are doing, and should go well. Not sure what I'm giong to do next week without class...perhaps we should hold a vigil on tuesday or wedesday and pay homage to the ITTC Center or something like that.

More to come as we get closer to the Exit...;)

So close to the end

I can't believe that we are almost there...seems like yesterday we were all saying how we could do all of the work that we were being asked to do...I believe I said we would say that at the start of my first blog!

The online is coming along glad to be almost finished with that...finishing up mod 5 so I will be gald when it is finished...trying to get everything ready for the last piece of the new index page and such plus finishing up the last lesson plan for podcasting.

Tough to believe this journey will soon be over...exit interviews on the way I look forward to working with my group, I think we will do a great job. I keep trying to think what will I do on Tuesdays Wednesdays and thursdays...wait I know NOTHING! What a ride!

Podcasting

Alright so I learned something tonight about podcasting...guess I never thought of it as having to be something that people subscribe to. I guess for me I think of people recording their voice onto something and letting others hear it. Guess that is where the subscripting comes into play, so people can hear it from around the world.

Publishing this to our wiki page seems to be difficult. We were able to get it there as a file, but this subscribing thing seems tough...Jessica and Jodi showed us something, but there must be a way to do it easier...since I don't subscribe or belong to Itunes, it won't let me do whatever it is that I need to do. Hopefully, there will be an easier way to get them uploaded next week (or should I say Thursday.)

movie maker and video

So cool...I was able to pubish and post our video last night to our wiki page. I have always wanted to publish something like that to the internet so it was a real thrill to do that. What's really neat about all of this is think how excited we get by doing these things...kids are even more excited! It was fun working with everyone last night on our movie...don't know about you all bu tthe online is really keeping me busy it feels more than just the usual online course. Mod 3 is killing me! But it will soon be all over:)

Public Announcement

One of the things that I like best about this project is that my group really works...My biggest fear with group work is when one person pulls all of the weight and other folks kind of ride on the line. The group that I'm with just really works well, all of our ideas are accepted and talked about and to me that is the best part of working in a group, when everyone pulls together.

I think that our video is going to be pretty funny, and while being funny also get to the point. Filming will take place tomorrow and it will be a great lesson for us using digital video.

I really get a lot out of using digital video with my students...the kids just get into and really like seeing themselves on tape. Even the students that sometimes hate getting up in the class this is a way to get them there. A cool idea that I love to use with the students:)

Advocacy Paper

Well tonight our group finished working on our paper. I think that it could be a useful document, and is something that we might be able to give out to parents to help them out. I guess if you want to find out more you will have to check it out at our website...http://parenting101.pbwiki.com/

We are already crunching some ideas for our Public Address Video.

I think that the next 6 classes are going to be intense. The amount of work that needs to be completed will I'm sure compact and hopefully not pile up.

The leadership course is something that I'm not sure about...being in this role as an ITRT has really given me leadership skills that I feel that this course would have been great before I became an ITRT. I think back to a leadership game that we did with Dr. Warrick last year and how valuable a "game" it was. I'm not sure I'm getting as much out of the course as others...I feel like it is just a slump of work with little really happening...perhaps it is because of our mentor having such a huge amount of people. I can't think that it is easy for her having 10 of us. It makes me somewhat nervous being a mentor starting in June. I hope that I can handle it.

Advocacy Paper

Working on the advocacy paper has been something that I was a bit nervous about since writing it for parent's is something that I know little about. Not having kids of my own, except in the classroom I don't feel that I not as a parent have the right to tell parents what to do.

Writing this paper though really isn't about telling people what to do it is giving ideas more like common sense thought about what you should do when you ahve children.

I'm looking forward to seeing what are final paper looks like. Writing it using the WIKI is cool as it allows me to be able to see and others to what we are all writing. Pretty cool

Using Wiki's to help

One of the things that I liked about last nights class was the fact that it caused our advocacy group to do some thinking. We were ready to go ahead and start working on individual pieces of our position paper, when someone said "hey why don't we place it on our pbwiki site and edit it as a group."

That's when it clicked for me this is what Wiki's can do, it opens up a world where we don't have to all be in the same room working together on the paper. To be able to have the option no matter where in the world you are to create, edit, colloborate, and anything else is just so cool and powerful. This reminds me of something out of those future movies...it's now becoming reality.

I can't imagine where times are going with this...read/write/web is going to become such an integral part of our lives...people get ready to shift!

Some New Ideas

I was talking to a friend of mine this week, and we were talking about blogging and how you could use it in the schools and classrooms. He is a supervisor of a virtual school, anyway we got to talking about blogging and what we are working on in class. He was explaining to me about this new program that you can use to set up an audio file on your blogging. Anyway, stay tuned I'm going to see if I take blogging to another great level of involvement. I think this is something that if works well can be great for students that perhaps have difficulty typing or may not even to this point have internet access. A cool thought!

Google Reader

I can't get over the amount of "stuff" that is out there that one can do to make the ability to do so much at one time. The ability to multi-task was once something that people could barely do, yet here we are managing at least looking at Dr. Warrick's stuff an unbelievable amount of information.

What does this mean? To me it means we have to be able to continue to keep up the speed we look at the world around us...It is a fast paced place that isn't going to slow down. It was very cool to see all of the things like the reader, docs, and some of the other features that just google offers, however I think one really has to sit down with it and mess with it to really uunderstand it.

Starting the Wiki last night with our group was cool as well. It boggles my mind how easy it is for one to post information for the whole world to see. I think back to when I was in school and wanted to get information I would have to grab the "New Book Of Knoweledge" (remember with the tree on it!) Now we have people in this cohort that are going to post important information that someone may come across on the internet...that's pretty cool to me.

I look forward to continuing to work on this project, and the rest of this semester.

Graduation and Beyond

Saturday was a great day. Pete, his family, and my wife attended the graduation ceremony in Fairfax. At first I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go to it, but it was a great experience. To have my wife there cheering for me as I walked meant a lot. This has been a tough journey for us personally having all of the work that I do as an ITRT, and then having this mounted on top. She was proud and that meant a lot to me. Being there to share the day with friends and family put this all into perspective.

So far the week has been busy trying to get things worked on for the Leadership course, it is keeping me busy. Being an ITRT has really helped me out or at least I think it will. Participating in the Coaches Academy has also been pretty cool.

Gotta tell ya my friend has a blog and I'm really starting to get into this...pretty neat to write down thoughts like this. Why don't I want to write them all paper...who knows perhaps it takes to much time and my hands would hurt...is that being lazy??

Off to watch Deadliest Catch. Enjoy

First Night

Wow! At the start of every semester I feel like holy cow...how will we get it all done? It is amazing though that once we get started how quickly the time flies and how the work somehow always gets done.

This course is going to probably one of the best ones and ones that I have been looking forward to since I heard that we were going to take it.

I look forward to learning a lot and expecting to get a great deal out of it!

What a semester it is going to be...let the good times roll!