June Hiatus

Beloved Blog,

I am taking a much needed break from blogging, and everything else that involves a glowing screen.

After two full weeks of contract work, followed by finishing up spring quarter, I am giving myself a little hiatus from work. A bit of a recharge before summer quarter is in order. I spent an entire morning reading and drinking coffee. I haven't looked at my calendar in days! Glorious! I'm spending my days reading, writing (with pen and paper), gardening, running on trails, riding my bikes, watching movies, sunning with my dog, and staring at the damage the slugs are doing to my garden. When I return, I'll blog about things to come, an award that I won that still makes my jaw drop, and how this summer is a bridge to new things to come. Happy June!

Feels Like Work, Only It's Not

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It's the last week of the quarter, and I have a major project due in my grad class in less than a week. I'm trying to get all of that work done while working my more than full-time job. This past weekend, I did some training to become a trainer for a freelance job, so I'm kind of behind on everything this week. I felt so burned out yesterday after work that I couldn't get anything done. Me and the mister sat on our lovely deck with the dog. We watched the sun dip ever closer to the northwest while various birds flew in and out of our yard. Some of my flowers are starting to bloom and I'm reminded (once again) of how much I love my daisies, zinnias, and lavender plants. There is a constant party of bees on the lavender.

It was a hot afternoon in the PNW, so we toasted a cold beer to the end of the quarter. I am reminded of my research about teacher burnout. Taking a mental break helps keep everything in perspective. Indeed.

Still the many things to do on my list remains. Ever stare at your list and not know where to begin? Usually when I get that feeling, I write in my journal, but today I'm turning to my blog. I'll join the millions of other bloggers who blog about blogging. (I'm pretty sure I used to make fun of bloggers, so that's a story for another time).

Here are two things that are valuable to me about this blog:

1. I've been able to record my thoughts about projects that I am working on, so blogging feels like work, only it's not. With conference presentations and now my graduate project, I've been able to cull ideas and thoughts that would have been buried in my personal paper journal. Unlike my paper journal, I blog knowing there is an audience (not that big of one, mind you, but I do have some readers). My journal feeds the creative writer in me. This blog, albeit something I started for a MOOC, has grown on me. It's become part of my writing practice. Who knew?

2. I've connected with people I have never met, who I don't see enough, and I've become a part of a larger network of learners. Teaching, especially as adjunct, is an isolated profession. I've worked at my college for almost a decade, and I have just recently met people I wished I had talked to years ago. This blog has helped me make some valuable connections.

Here are two things I wished I had known before I started blogging:

1. My URL includes the name of the MOOC I joined, and my title has a built-in timeline. I'll need to create a new URL next year. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, but I wish I had not chosen a year in my title. I also don't always blog about Ed Tech. Honestly, I thought I would delete the blog after the MOOC.

2. I wish I had started blogging at the start of my grad program. I have so much to use from my last two classes while I've blogged, but my paper notebook that I started in 2010 feels like an anchor. I just get lost in looking at my old work. It's easier to put together ideas by scrolling through my blog. Who knew? My experience has made me think a great deal about what my students are going through when they use a LMS to gather their portfolios. The current LMS I am using as a teacher is a nightmare for students to find their own work, so I empathize. It's not an easy medium to navigate for reflective writing. Blogging, on the other hand, encourages the type of reflection I try to teach my writing students.

So what's going on for June? Once I complete the quarter as a student and as a teacher, I'm going to focus on some time off before the summer quarter begins. I really want to write an article about the presentations I've done this year, and I need to keep researching. So I did some clicking around, and I signed up for a Mini-Course on Web 2.0 Tools through the Powerful Learning Practice. They send participants emails everyday for two weeks about different web tools in order to start a personal learning network. So far, I know everything they have sent me, but I like their format for the trainings. They send a short engaging invitation email about the tool, several links on how to get started, some examples, and then a question to consider for tomorrow's email. It's also free (or I wouldn't be doing it). I can see this idea working for a small cohort of teachers trying out new ideas for teaching. It's like work, only not really.

Thank you, NW eLearn!

http://bit.ly/y7B8H7

I did some major self-promotion today!
I have uploaded my PowerPoint slides from my presentation on http://atlconference2013.wikispaces.com/home

Scroll down to the bottom, and you can download the slides. Feel free to contact me about anything I talked about, and I really appreciate all of the kind regards listed in the chat. I have one more presentation on this topic, and then I have to write a paper to be published before everything I am researching is obsolete.

This my favorite slide about "how technology came into our classroom." It cracks me up, so thanks to the person who posted "Hahaha" in the chat.

For The Birds

http://bit.ly/18xHv9q

One of my favorite little stories to get teachers to think about technology and its use in the classroom, is to talk about the great Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds.

When I was in college, my film professor used the scene of Tippi at the school to teach POV shots. We'd clap every time there was a film cut from Tippi to her POV. It was a pretty cheesy tactile exercise, but I understood POV and cuts from that point on.

Remember how the birds start coming one by one by jungle gym? They appear ever so slowly until there are so many, it's quite scary. Hitchcock uses real birds (and some puppets) to set up that suspense.


Then remember the scene where the birds are attacking the children as they run from the school?

If you have not seen this movie, I demand that you get off the Internet right now, and watch this movie. Then return to my blog. Pronto.

To our modern day eyes with all the green screen CGI, the bird scene is pretty dated, if not silly. The blood on the little girl's face is ketchup-like, and she could use some acting lessons. Is that fishing line on that bird puppet? The sound, however, is grating, if not terrifying. Tippi's face fills us with fear. We want her to protect her perfect green suit and her incredible blond hair. We forget that the special effects are dated, and we're scared. If we are good students of history, then we'll remember that at the time of this movie's premier, this scene was cutting edge. Audiences were terrified!

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Our modern day eyes can forget the out dated special effects, and we're right back into the story. The content is good, and the story fills us with wonder. You never quite look at a group of birds the same way. You may even want to go to Bodega Bay, CA. You eye all fire places with suspicion forever more (or maybe that's just me).

So how does this connect to technology and teaching? It might be a stretch, but I like to have teachers think of themselves as Hitchcock, and the technology is what you use to tell a great story, to teach a good class, to share your learning. Why not try to do something that you haven't tried before and see how the audience reacts? If your content is good (like a quality film script), then the audience will be engaged.

Maybe the technology you use could be that spark for your students to learn something. Something new may take flight.

NW eLearn Webinar

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elycefeliz/2533827320/

Thanks to the lovely folks at NW eLearn, I am honored to share my research via webinar. Just as a fair warning to my readers, one of the audience members at the ATL conference said my presentation was like "learning on Red Bull." I think Red Bull tastes like melted Sweet Tarts and it gives me a headache, but I think she was sincere in giving me a compliment.

Another person told me later (as I was stuffing my face with the free food), that my presentation helped her see that "she could do it, too."

                                                My goal is to give you wings, not a headache.

I am doing a webinar on May 30. I'd love it if you could join me.

The Trenches of Curriculum Development

What does 12 days of sunshine, five bike rides, four runs, two days of gardening, two classes, one project, one conference, and one graduate class equal? Zero time for blogging.

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I've just got to let it go that I can only get to this blog when the spirit moves me. I'm thinking of cancelling my Twitter account, so I am slowly shedding some of the practices that I picked up with the ETMOOC. Still, in terms of life-long learning, I think what I have accomplished with just trying new technologies is part of the success of that MOOC.

Just jumping into it all and seeing what sticks makes it worth it. Twitter just feels redundant since I'm actively using Diigo. Maybe I'll change my mind. Do I tweet a Diigo tag then Pin it and then blog about it? Geez. It's just too much. Especially when all I want to do is ride my bike.

Today, it's easier to work because it's windy and rainy (I hate riding in the wind).

In four hours, I will sit for my oral defense for M. Ed. I've spent the last two days making lists, reviewing notes, thinking about what I'll say, and trying to memorize names and publications (I'm awful at that, by the way). When I started this program three years ago, we were told to keep a binder of all of our work for our portfolio. My paper binder is no longer an option, and now I've got to figure out how to make this giant puzzle of my learning come together. I'm pretty confident I can talk about it tonight, but how I can summarize it all into a portfolio is a bit mystifying. Also, I've got to create an "applied research proposal" and this is the nail on the coffin of my future as a graduate student. I can't stand the idea of "proposing" anything that I will never execute any more. I've spent way too many hours on the theory and I'm ready for the practice. I suppose a doctoral program would allow me to actually do the research, but I think I'm just going to give it a go on my own.

Thinking about more graduate work is no longer exciting. It's totally exhausting. I started this whole odyssey back in 2007 when I didn't get the full-time job that I really wanted. Since then, I've been on search for something new. For a time, graduate school has been just that something new I needed. With two classes to go, I'm ready to pass the finish line. Motivation is tough to come by, but I must keep on.

On a positive note, I found one quote from a course that I took in April 2010 that actually matches some of my current interests with the Title III grant and my work with the eLearning department. It's pretty hilarious how I weave scathing institutional critiques with my own reflections on teaching! Who am I kidding? What terrible writing! I know better. I teach better writing skills than what I produced in this class. (Note to self: do not take this tone into your oral exam).  I have this two paragraph rant about how a full-timer got "release time" to develop an online class the same quarter I wrote a class during spring break (without pay). So it goes.

Here's my quote:
"In the future, I hope to advocate for more professional development support for adjuncts who teach OL. They are often the ones in the trenches of curriculum development with very little support and funding. They do not have the option to ask for release time nor can they opt out of teaching a class one quarter because they aren't satisfied with the content. The institution gets a real return-on-investment when it supports teachers who use technology. I'd like to be that person who helps those teachers."

Well, here I am three years later, and I'm doing exactly what I hoped for. Amazing. But I still have to graduate.

When I get the time, I'll post more about what I learned at the ATL conference, my work with OER, and some of the very cool projects I am working on this summer.

Pleased to meet you!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madame_furie/2624297545/

Hello Assessment, Teaching, & Learning Conference folks!

Welcome to my Personal Learning Network!

Thanks for attending my presentation today. Here is the blog that I mentioned in my presentation, and once the conference is over, I will post my presentation wiki here.

Hope to hear your ideas!