Tuesday, June 5, 2007
It's been awhile!
Well, I've finished another quarter of grad school. 36 units complete and only 9 more to go. I started this program almost a year ago with no direction and no idea about what I was getting into. But, now people call me to get advice on editing movies, pictures, and designing web sites. I'm not to savvy, but it's nice to have a little respect from your peers and friends. I've decided to take the summer off. My brain is fried.....beyond baked! I've been going to school full time, working full time, and helping with wedding plans. The wedding has come and past....what a great time! Now, I just need some time to chill. Also, I have two surgeries that need to happen over the summer. I tore my Labrum in my should earlier this year and tore my ACL last year. I've been postponing all of them because of school and the wedding. Maybe this summer I'll get them taken care of, we'll see.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Timtable
Monday 5/21:
I'm actually going to web programming.....HAHA!
578 meeting in Second Life.....FUN!
Tuesday 5/22:
Arrive at LAX for first flight at noon
Second and Third flights arrive at 1:30
Fourth flight arrives at 4:45
Check-In everyone at hotel
Guys Night Out!
Wednesday 5/23:
Pick-Up Chair Covers at 10
Vans Store at 11
Pick up food at the meat market at 12
Begin cooking food for BBQ
PIck up tuxes at 3
BBQ at 6
Thursday 5/24:
Check-In at Long Beach
RELAX
Rehearsal Practice at 4
Rehearsal Dinner at 6
Friday 5/25:
SLEEP
Decorating room at 2
Pictures at 4
Ceremony at 6
Dinner at 7
Party till 11
Saturday 5/26:
Return Chair Covers and Tuxes
Gather wood for bonfire
Head to Bolsa Chica, lifeguard station 25
BONFIRE with friends!
Sunday 5/27:
LAX 7:10, 10:15, 10:20, 11:40 for returning flights
WHAT A WEDDING WEEK!
I'm actually going to web programming.....HAHA!
578 meeting in Second Life.....FUN!
Tuesday 5/22:
Arrive at LAX for first flight at noon
Second and Third flights arrive at 1:30
Fourth flight arrives at 4:45
Check-In everyone at hotel
Guys Night Out!
Wednesday 5/23:
Pick-Up Chair Covers at 10
Vans Store at 11
Pick up food at the meat market at 12
Begin cooking food for BBQ
PIck up tuxes at 3
BBQ at 6
Thursday 5/24:
Check-In at Long Beach
RELAX
Rehearsal Practice at 4
Rehearsal Dinner at 6
Friday 5/25:
SLEEP
Decorating room at 2
Pictures at 4
Ceremony at 6
Dinner at 7
Party till 11
Saturday 5/26:
Return Chair Covers and Tuxes
Gather wood for bonfire
Head to Bolsa Chica, lifeguard station 25
BONFIRE with friends!
Sunday 5/27:
LAX 7:10, 10:15, 10:20, 11:40 for returning flights
WHAT A WEDDING WEEK!
Brushing it OFF!
This blog may not have anything related to education, but sometimes you need to write. Countdown is ON! 7 days and counting and I'll be married. I'm super excited and ready for the day. The waiting is what is killing. Not mention to the stupid management at the Extended Stay America in Long Beach. Actually maybe I can spin this towards education and technology.
We have reserved 15 rooms at said hotel for a rate of $75/night. However, the manager that made this reservation no longer works at the location and FAILED to USE her technology (computer) to make notes under our reservation name. Yesterday, my mom calls and tells me someone from the hotel called and told her they had overbooked and needed guests to cancel their reservation. Let's see here......people are flying (or driving, like my grandparents) across the country, staying at your hotel for almost a week, and you want to lose that profit because some idiot couldn't type a few words into our account? WOW! Some people are dumb. Maybe that falls back to the gap between technology and education. Maybe this person never received any type of training with computers. But, WAIT, this person is a manager! This is a leadership position in which you lead by example. Shouldn't you know how to use everything in the hotel and document reservations? Not sure here but it seems easy.
Anyway, second topic to complain about. I wanted to do something different for the wedding. I'm different. So I had 5 pair of Vans custom made. Well, the order said it would take 5-7 for the shoes to arrive for myself and the groomsman. Currently, we are in the 6th of the promised arrival date....NO SHOES! After speaking with someone from Vans, I was informed I couldn't cancel the order because it was after the 24 hr period and that the shoes would be here the last week of May. That's GREAT! The wedding is the 25th and the shoes will be here the week after. I'll have 5 pairs of shoes, 5 different sizes, and no one to wear them. So, I have to find time in the already busy week to go buy 5 more pairs of shoes for the wedding.
On a good note, I did manage to book a place for the rehearsal dinner and they were very nice!
OH!......in the process of getting a California drivers license. What a pain in the butt! I understood I would have to pay fees, but this other stuff is crazy. First, my truck needs a smog certification...not a problem, I can understand that. Second, someone from the DMV must verify all the VIN numbers and mileage match what I had written down....not a problem. Third, the state of California considers any truck a commercial vehicle.....what in the world?!?! So, I have to find a certified weighmaster and have my truck weighed. Then I have to bring this certificate back to the DMV and possibly pay more fees based on the weight of my truck. It's a Nissan Frontier for crying out loud! I'm not hauling 10,000 pounds of anything. This is dumb!
I did pass the driving test on the first try without studying :)
We have reserved 15 rooms at said hotel for a rate of $75/night. However, the manager that made this reservation no longer works at the location and FAILED to USE her technology (computer) to make notes under our reservation name. Yesterday, my mom calls and tells me someone from the hotel called and told her they had overbooked and needed guests to cancel their reservation. Let's see here......people are flying (or driving, like my grandparents) across the country, staying at your hotel for almost a week, and you want to lose that profit because some idiot couldn't type a few words into our account? WOW! Some people are dumb. Maybe that falls back to the gap between technology and education. Maybe this person never received any type of training with computers. But, WAIT, this person is a manager! This is a leadership position in which you lead by example. Shouldn't you know how to use everything in the hotel and document reservations? Not sure here but it seems easy.
Anyway, second topic to complain about. I wanted to do something different for the wedding. I'm different. So I had 5 pair of Vans custom made. Well, the order said it would take 5-7 for the shoes to arrive for myself and the groomsman. Currently, we are in the 6th of the promised arrival date....NO SHOES! After speaking with someone from Vans, I was informed I couldn't cancel the order because it was after the 24 hr period and that the shoes would be here the last week of May. That's GREAT! The wedding is the 25th and the shoes will be here the week after. I'll have 5 pairs of shoes, 5 different sizes, and no one to wear them. So, I have to find time in the already busy week to go buy 5 more pairs of shoes for the wedding.
On a good note, I did manage to book a place for the rehearsal dinner and they were very nice!
OH!......in the process of getting a California drivers license. What a pain in the butt! I understood I would have to pay fees, but this other stuff is crazy. First, my truck needs a smog certification...not a problem, I can understand that. Second, someone from the DMV must verify all the VIN numbers and mileage match what I had written down....not a problem. Third, the state of California considers any truck a commercial vehicle.....what in the world?!?! So, I have to find a certified weighmaster and have my truck weighed. Then I have to bring this certificate back to the DMV and possibly pay more fees based on the weight of my truck. It's a Nissan Frontier for crying out loud! I'm not hauling 10,000 pounds of anything. This is dumb!
I did pass the driving test on the first try without studying :)
Monday, May 14, 2007
Week 3
I find myself in a bit of a bind. My wedding is next week and guest starting arriving this weekend to help us prepare. Although I've known about this for over two years, I didn't prepare myself for completing my finals the week after. So, this week I've been researching what I could possibly present for my Alternative Learning Environments class. Tonight we meet in Second Life for a virtual class. Last week we had a class chat online. I know that I want to use IMovie or Final Cut to put together a movie for the class because powerpoint is not considered a form of technology because it's out dated by mentioned programs. I have the medium through which I will present my topic to the class......what do I present? I've found a lot of interesting articles and readings while posting my blogs. I feel that will be my starting point and from there the road is wide open.
Possible topics include Technology in Education (bridging the gap), Educational Blogging, and How technology increases student learning.
Possible topics include Technology in Education (bridging the gap), Educational Blogging, and How technology increases student learning.
Week 2
I will add to this as the week continues, but found an interesting topic to discuss this week. Podcasting! I have put a few of them in the top right hand corner. The first one I found interesting because CNN, being a major source of news, has jumped on the informational technology bandwagon by having Anderson Cooper's reports podcasted daily. This may be insignificant to some, but I find it appealing because we recently had a discussion on how soon we would see podcasting in an educational setting. If news agencies are toying with podcasting, I'm sure that it won't be long before we can see podcasting in high schools, middle schools, and possibly elementary schools. I didn't mention Higher Education (HE) because universities are already using the technology in their courses.
Way to COOL! If you are an Elementary Teacher and want an effective way to incorporate technology in your classroom, please look at the following site, http://www.stillmotionmedia.com/
This place is amazing. We know that most students have an Ipod or some form of MP3 media player. This site allows you to put books on these audio devices. This could be an excellent way to convert a normal listening center into a tech-savy listening center. The link is provided in the podcasting section.
Way to COOL! If you are an Elementary Teacher and want an effective way to incorporate technology in your classroom, please look at the following site, http://www.stillmotionmedia.com/
This place is amazing. We know that most students have an Ipod or some form of MP3 media player. This site allows you to put books on these audio devices. This could be an excellent way to convert a normal listening center into a tech-savy listening center. The link is provided in the podcasting section.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Technology and Education.....
What will 5 weeks worth of Educational Blogging look like?
Week 1:
Can blogging be educational? Will education and technology ever find a middle ground? These are types of questions that run through my mind everyday. I'm hoping that through this blog, and through my class (Alternative Learning Environments), that I will be able to find clarification to my questions. Will I find the right answer or the answer that I want to hear? Is there a right answer to any question or just what we want to hear?
Coming from an educational background, I can understand the importance of technology in the classroom. Being a younger educator, I have had the chance to use technology through my studies and more importantly incorporate it in my classroom. I'm here now to find different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom so that students will be prepared for the community they are about to enter.
"For students to thrive in a world enabled by information technology, we must give them the skills to make sense of and use the information that engulfs them. They need to know how to learn new skills as quickly as technology creates new challenges."
I was dumbfounded when I read the above statement. Technology changes everyday and we are forced to keep up. For example, I bought my computer (Apple G5) less than a year ago. As of today, it is out dated! How can that be, the world evolves; technology evolves. If the technology is evolving at such a rapid pace, how can we as educators not evolve our teaching methods? We must for our students to have a fighting chance. The old "drill and kill" methods are no longer acceptable forms of teaching. Student’s education should be geared to their learning styles. Every child learns in a completely different way. If we have the technology to reach these students in a way that is unique as they are, why not use it?
Week 1:
Can blogging be educational? Will education and technology ever find a middle ground? These are types of questions that run through my mind everyday. I'm hoping that through this blog, and through my class (Alternative Learning Environments), that I will be able to find clarification to my questions. Will I find the right answer or the answer that I want to hear? Is there a right answer to any question or just what we want to hear?
Coming from an educational background, I can understand the importance of technology in the classroom. Being a younger educator, I have had the chance to use technology through my studies and more importantly incorporate it in my classroom. I'm here now to find different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom so that students will be prepared for the community they are about to enter.
"For students to thrive in a world enabled by information technology, we must give them the skills to make sense of and use the information that engulfs them. They need to know how to learn new skills as quickly as technology creates new challenges."
I was dumbfounded when I read the above statement. Technology changes everyday and we are forced to keep up. For example, I bought my computer (Apple G5) less than a year ago. As of today, it is out dated! How can that be, the world evolves; technology evolves. If the technology is evolving at such a rapid pace, how can we as educators not evolve our teaching methods? We must for our students to have a fighting chance. The old "drill and kill" methods are no longer acceptable forms of teaching. Student’s education should be geared to their learning styles. Every child learns in a completely different way. If we have the technology to reach these students in a way that is unique as they are, why not use it?
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