Last Post!

Each and every day this month has been blacked out with at least two or three things to do. I've been trying to get back to computer lab to finish my Classroom Site. But I've been unable to do so!! Also Knox County is getting so particular that we can't download any sites, pictures or practically any information. Even the photos on my blog will not come through for some reason. My students are quite agitated anticipating the end of the year. It's too soon there are 18 days left. Assuming the tech lab is open tonight I should be able to clean up all my pages for the Classroom website. Although I may wait until Wed. My last class is next Monday. I have completed all other requirements. The final outcome of this class and if you've read my other blogs you'll find this curious, but I think I may purchase a Mac for my next computer this summer. I have grown to like it's simplicity over a pc. I never saw that coming as a result of IT486!

What we're up against...

A student came to me the other day and asked me if she could leave her project in my room because she didn't want anything to happen to it. She seemed very proud. It was a simple cardboard box covered with brown paper. Inside the box sand was glued to the bottom of the box. There were paper cutouts of people colored with crayons. Also a large cutout of a cactus and two cardboard houses at either end of the box. The student had a quote from a book on the outside of her box along with her name, also boldly drawn in crayon. This was the extent of her project... I remember doing this sort of "book report" in the first grade. This student was in the 11th grade. This is what we're up against. While I study how to import and export files to my website, my students are working with cardboard!! Perhaps its just that time of year when the end is so close that everything seems bleak. Now to be fair, many of the teachers here at my school have set much higher standards as part of the restructuring that is taking place at my school. However, I want to emphasize that this student was proud of this work. We have so much we must do to bring the classrooms of Tennessee up to the level of expectations of the 21st century. Though I have certainly had my own difficulties in 486, I know how far I've come and how far I must go. Now to just help my students embrace the possibilities, because they have so very far to go.

Like building a house of matchsticks!

So things are slowly improving! I spent an afternoon last week in the computer lab with Melissa and soooo many things are cleared up. OK, I know this will sound dumb...but I didn't realize exactly what I was doing when I was updating my web pages. Melissa pointed out that I couldn't update them when they were on the net and that I needed to update them on my jump drive then send them to the net. I'm sure to some of you this may have seemed obvious but then that is how lost I was as I floundered in the class. My movie was fun to work on, even though it ended up as a bizarre final project. I hope no one asks me what it means, because I have no idea. I used the pictures from our digital images scavenger hunt and then I placed them together into a story of sorts. Though I'm sure my computer was acting up on some of the techniques, the project was creative enough to draw me in.

I also realize that I have learned more than I thought I had. For example, as I began this blog I was upset because Knox county schools won't allow me to open any photo sites!!!! I wanted to add a picture to this blog. I wanted to find a picture of something made out of matchsticks to illustrate with a simile my learning in 486. Then I reasoned that I could edit my blog later from my home computer and add a photo to this listing. Before this class started I could never have done that.

However, as much as I have learned and plan to use in the future, I am overjoyed that tonight is the last class. This has been a very hectic semester...year...taking classes and teaching. I will admit I look forward to including some of my new skills, and I use the word loosely, in my lesson planning for next year.

It's a Train Wreck

Last night as we were making the pages for our Classroom website, the more I worked on moving the files around the more I got behind. My computer was dumping things that I did and responding slowly. While I waited on things to come up on my screen I would miss three directions of the next steps. Earlier I had found this picture of a famous train wreck at Montparnasse, France. Somehow it seemed appropriate for my emotional state at the end of the class. I have to go back in to school on Thursday or Friday and make sure things are correct for my Monday night class. I finished the last of my wiki and added my last post. I sent the Word document by cutting and pasting the info and sent it to the teacher. I particularly enjoyed looking for the WebQuests. That is definately something I'll use in my French classes in the future. There were some great projects out there. Also, just as added reinforcement for what I've learned in this class, my niece is in the Peace Corps and is regularly sending blogs and wikis my way. I now know what they are!!! Still for me the biggest problem is moving files around when I don't understand what the final product is supposed to look like. It is tough being a visual learner in a virtual world!

Petit a petit!

Little by little... I was glad that I did well on my diagram grade. I did almost all of it without any help. I had trouble saving it particall because I had placed capitals and spaces in the title. I have to remember to stop doing that. It has given me problems several times before. I'm nervous about tonight's class. I have little experience on spreadsheats and for some in the class it is second nature. Also the movie could prove problems for me. I still wish that some more rudimental skills had been addressed in this class. Everyone wouldn't need them but some, includiing myself do! Moving things around from file to file is so hard to learn when we fly so fast on the various projects. I have little time to focus on just learning the new skills. And, not to sound like a broken record, working in Mac is very different than on a PC. But at 54 years old, I think I'm holding my own fairly well. I made a 43 on the midterm. Wish I had done one or two points better. But it's a solid B. One of the things this class has helped me with is understanding my own reflective practice. There are so many things I could be doing better. Of course I need the equipment in my classroom. But now, in a way, I know what to ask for. Three more classes. I still feel like this course needed to be adapted for those taking it only one day a week as compared to those taking it twice a week.

New Is Old

It occurred to me the other night when I was working in class that what we are working on will all be replaced in a few years with something new. I also thought that all the trouble I'm having just getting a grasp on how all this works is really old news that I should already be familiar with. So it could fairly be said that perhaps one is always behind the times as far as technology goes. Because as soon as you learn it, the innovation has pass you by!

I enjoyed the diagram exercise we worked on. Supposedly it was a "limited" program. Perhaps for someone with limited ability and experience it was perfect assignment. I know that I can use that to help my students follow a lesson. I just like how obvious the applications were for me. When I get my new computer this summer I want to be sure and add Inspiration to my programs.

I was at a teachers conference the other day where I led a workshop on using drama in the classroom. The workshop after me was on using technology in the classroom. As I listened to that workshop I actually understood far more than I would have befor ethis class. Sooooo... something is obviously working.

Took the mid-term last night and felt like an idiot. But I made a 43/50 which apparently was better than those around me I asked about their grade.

And above all I don't feel as much fear in the class as I did before so. That is progress as well...right...don't you think so...

I'm tyring to convince myself...of something.

Can It Be That I'm Having Fun?

Ok, though I almost hate to admit it...I'm having fun using some of my
technology. I've seen others load and download pictures from their
phones and only been able to stare enviously!! Now I'm doing it as well. My spring break was great just to be able to back off on my school duties and focus on my classes at UT. I finished a paper for Ed. Psych. I also was able to catch up on the reading for Instructional Tech. I know some of the folks in my class probably feel sorry for the old guy but their help has been invaluable. I'm beginning to see why Mac users are so loyal. As much as I dislike moving from the pc to the Mac, it must be more uncomfortable to move the other direction. My French students next year will be the benefactors of my suffering this semester!! That makes me feel a little noble...

A New Language!

As I was working in my Theatre Arts class the other day something interesting occurred to me. My students are doing a collaborative project with the dance company. They were working together to find a way to make a puppet communicate and dance with a human dancer. It came to me that this was a new language for them just as assuredly as my French students struggle with learning French. Then I thought even further that my struggles with wiki's and blogs was also learning a new language but that we were all trying to do the same thing...communicate. The important thing is that part of the human spirit that struggles to share in whatever language something common, a desire, a longing, a wish, a hope. In a round-about way gave me hope in my technology class!

Give me a break!!

Nine days away from school!!!! Spring break is so great. I'm not going anywhere just looking forward to catching up on things in my life. I have plans to go ahead and do the story board for the next part of 486. I've done storyboards for theatre and film stuff so I'm familiar with them. Of course this class will have it's own spin I'm sure. Last week with the pictures was as difficult as I expected. So many of the others seem to know things already, not fair. I'm learning some basic Mac skills at the same time I'm working on class stuff. And then the computers often act up. For example, I was able to label all of my pictures except the scanned one. It would not take the edit EXACTLY like the other four pictures did. When I got home on my own computer I was able to label it with no problems. Go figure. And of course I discover, somehow I have a blog at jfergu15 and another one at jfergu15@utk.edu????? My blogs are at one and my photos went to the otherone....I have no idea...I and a small group of fellow struggles stayed for an extra 30 minutes the other day. But Voila! I got it all done.

Possibilities

OK I'm going to admit that some of this is beginning to rub off. I have been promised a smart board for next year. They had training sessions at my school. I went to one the other day and I was already thinking way ahead of them because of the stuff I've been working on in 486. Thanks again to my tutor, M., I have been progressing, albeit slowly. The smart board makes so many things possible. My students still don't have easy access to computers so things like blogs and wiki's are in the future but at least when I can use them they won't be so alien. I still get lost in class when I'm tyring to get my computer to do what I want it to and the teacher progresses to the next point and I miss it...but that is happening less. This weekend I worked on creating the electronic lesson plan and I was actually able to navigate. Tonight however, things sound more difficult, we have to move pictures around, again something I have never done. We'll see how it goes.

comfort zone

Well I'm getting a little more comfortable with the macs in the computer lab. Now if I can just remember to bring my jump drive with me to class I might be able to navigate everything. Working on the WebQuest with Margaret was actually kinda fun. It ended up being a pretty nice project I thought. I'm also getting more familiar with the way the different locations interact in the virtual world. As I mentioned before the kenetic understanding of the different computers is mostly what is throwing me off. But onward and upward.

Well this has been quite a technological weekend for me. It is difficult for me to get to the computer during the week. My time is consumed with teaching, lesson plans, professional development workshops at my school and classes. For that reason I spent almost all day saturday and today online working on my webquest and my wiki's and now my blogs. As much as I disliked it, I know that I learned alot with my assignment. My partner is ver computer savy and I needed to do a lot of work just to keep up. But again she has been of great comfort. In a little way it demonstrates the importance of seeking out other teachers for advice and ideas and also to help one keep on track. I'm very excited at my school, Austin East because they are having extended classes on how ot use and operate smart boards. They have promissed me one for next year. It will give me access to the internet for my classroom. Now if only I could get AE to hire my red head mentor then I'd be set!

macifying!

In spite of my resistance I'm beginning to become a little more familiar with the Mac and therefore the "fear" factor is less and less. Moving and arranging files is becoming a little clearer as well. Sometimes I actually know how to do things before I get there!!!! (Thank God for my red-headed friend to my left. There are times I would be so lost without her help. Well, they tell us over and over the importance of collaboration. I had done a wiki and a blog in my Teaching Foreign language class but it was on a PC, it just made things seem familiar somehow. It's opening, copying and moving the picture around that is alien to me. But again it's becoming more familiar. I have been looking forward in the syllabus and there are some areas coming up that I look forward to understanding. I know the instructor is frustrated but with a background in theatre, we usually tried to stay as far away from computers as possible. I've been assured that next year I'll have a smart board and can incorporate some of these strategies in my classroom. My students will benefit. Things continue to be stressful in the class for me, I find that if my computer responds slowly or if I focus on the wrong thing for a second then the directions in the class have passed me by and I'm several steps behind. Also it is hard to see the cursor on the computer screen in the front of the class so sometimes I don't know where I should have clicked. Again thanks to the redhead. She says she sits at a computer all night at her night job and explores and that she has a mac and that is why she does so well. I'm convinced however that somehow it's because I'm 54!!!!! and she is 24ish!!!!

This week was a hectic one for me in class. I can't decide whether my issues are just technology issues or mac issues. I've never even been on a Mac before this class. I keep having knetic issues with how you enter things etc. It's that sort of hand thought communication that you don't even think about when you know your way around a computer. So I guess you could call it progress that I'm beginning to navigate my way around the Mac. Then when I get intensely focused on what I'm doing I miss some of the directions for what we are supposed to do next. !!!! Lucikly everyone around me helps a lot. I have big plans for my French class and technology. They keep promising me a smart board. Right now I don't even have any computer access for my class. My students don't move well to other locations and the computer lab is always busy with the core classes anyway. But if I can get the smart board then I can do things like power points. Yes it sounds like the dark ages, but I don't even have the ability to do powerpoints in my classroom. This means I have to do way to much direct instruction. But if I continue to gain the skills then when I do get the equipment then I'll know what to do.

Une petite histoire

I have had at least three careers in my life...thus far. After my first BA from UT in theatre I worked for the Birmingham Children's theatre and The Birmingham City Schools. I moved to Atlanta and worked for seven years as a professional Actor at the Academy Theatre. I moved back to Tennessee and was an adjunct professor at UT in the dept of theatre. I was also a professional company member with the Clarence Brown Theatre. I moved to France and lived for a year with my two sons after the death of my wife. This began my interests in French. I put the acting career aside to pursue my French...another lucrative career choice! After my second BA in French I took a position at Austin-East High School teaching French and Theatre Arts. I hope to combine my interests by going to the University of Edinburgh and getting a higher degree in European (French) Theatre. What I really want to be when I frow up is a professional student!