EDLD 5366 Week 1 Assignment 1.2

When I first opened the Bible from Ethiopia, I wasn’t impressed. The first page is filled with row after row of neatly ALIGNED characters, characters that I presume form words. Of course they are words that mean nothing to me, as they are in a foreign language. I thought, “This is bound to be a boring endeavor.” However, as I turned the first page, and next, and the next, I was in awe. The CONTRAST of the bright colors that were used drew me into the pages. In all honesty, I wish I hadn’t looked through the book a second time. I remembered the colors as being more vibrant when I saw them the first time. The REPITITION of the arch and birds continuing across the top of each page made me want to look farther. I don’t think I really clued into the title of the book, the Bible from Ethiopia, until I suddenly became aware that I was following a story that I knew, and new well! The PROXIMITY of the drawings to one another helped the storyline progress naturally and left me wanting more. I was disappointed when the story ended after only 32 pages! The one thing that I noticed more than anything else in the layout of this book was the eyes. The eyes of each character were positioned so that the reader never had to wonder who or what the author felt was the most important thing on that page. As I flipped back through one last time, the eyes made the people take on personality and the story come to life.

EDLD 5363 ET8036 Week 5 Web Conference Reflection

In the previous three classes I’ve taken, I really enjoyed the web conference experience. In the class, I have found the experience more frustrating than anything else. For some reason, I have had trouble connecting to the web conference every week. The only times I have been able to participate actively, as opposed to watching the recording at a later date, was when I logged in an hour before the scheduled time and waited patiently. I don’t know what the problem has been but what I have discovered is that a web conference is nearly as comforting when you can’t ask the questions that you want answered. As I have watched the recorded web conferences, I have found myself trying to type questions into the chat box! Talk about frustrating. I have still managed to get the answers to all of my questions from the recorded conferences but I have felt much more isolated than in the past.

Never the less, my partners and I have collected all of the answers to all of our questions and have had a really good time working together on this project. We have really benefitted from the web conference recordings as we have doubted ourselves on several occassions and have gone back to either the chat log or the videos themselves.

EDLD 5363 ET8036 Week 2 Web Conference Reflection

In the past the web conferences have been a critical part of my course work. I have found them to be insightful and stress relieving. In this course, however, I have had quite a different feeling. Until tonight, I have not been able to get into the web conferences even though I have signed in well before the scheduled start time. This week it may have been partially due to the fact that I was in east Egypt which is just west of nobody-ever-goes-there Texas with my parents for the Thanksgiving holiday. To say that their internet service is slow would be giving it a little to much credit. I believe it is one step about dial-up but it is a very small step.

Tonight, I signed into the the conference two hours early and just kept the window open on my laptop. I figured that one way or another I was getting in tonight. And I guess it was worth the wait because did get some of my questions answered before we lost Dr. Abernathy.

For some reason this week's assignment has been a very confusing for me. I was glade to have at least one other person say the same thing.

EDLD 5363 ET8036 Week 2 Assignment – Video Editing Software

In the Desktop-Video Guide this week it said that creating a digital video is really simple if you break it down into five steps: Buying equipment, shooting, capturing, editing and sharing. I have to laugh at the fact that they think it is simple probably because they’ve done it a million times.

Buying equipment is probably the hardest thing I can think of. Even when I do the research, talk to the sales people and seek the advice of those who seem to know; I still I end up with something that I paid way too much for and doesn’t do what I expected it to do. And capturing? What’s capturing? Never even heard that phrase until this week!
I can now handle editing. With Movie Maker it’s pretty easy. Time consuming, but easy. I had an old film strip from 1975 that had the cassette tape that beeps to tell you when to change the slide. About 8 years ago, I took digital pictures of each slide and turned it into a PowerPoint show. Unfortunately, the beeps could still be heard at times and it created havoc in the classroom when I had to try to explain to the natives how filmstrips used to work. This week, I put the PowerPoint into Movie Maker and after a great deal of effort, and about 2 hours, I had a 14 minute Windows Media Video (.wmv) with no beeps. Unfortunately, a few important words are missing too. I suppose that means that step two will be to add those words back in.
I have several projects that I want to tackle now and can't wait to get started.

Desktop-Video-Guide. (n.d.). The various stages of creating a digital video. Retrieved on November 24, 2011, from http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/video-creation.html

EDLD 5363 ET8036 Week 1 Assignment – Digital Story Reflection

Creating this digital story was much more time consuming than I had anticipated. My first idea was to do a story of how we got my daughter, Kate, when she was eight. I wrote the script but then changed my mind. It might have tugged at the heart strings but I wanted something with more energy.

Then I decided to do my story on my two brothers, Steven and Danny. They both died within the last 10 years and I thought it would be a nice tribute to them. But there was too much good stuff to narrow down to anywhere close to two minutes. In order to do either one of them justice, I knew I had to let one go. My daughter made it easy. She said, “Do Uncle Steve, you liked him best.” Ouch. But it was true. In the end, he was the one I was closest too.

From there it should have gotten easier but it didn’t. The pictures I have of Steve were scanned in 2002 and the quality wasn't very good. I wish I had enough time to get the originals from my parents’ house, the quality of the story would have been much better. While I’m at their house over Thanksgiving, I'm going to start scanning in all the old family photos. Then I will redo the story so that it does justice to my brother.

The last issue was how to end it. I had to have an upbeat ending. Steven wouldn’t have it any other way. So, I decided that the music and the stories I told must be fun right down to the last one.

I wish I didn’t sound so nasal and I wish I could have made it longer (Grrrr!); but, all in all, I’m pleased with the outcome. I hope you will be too http://youtu.be/3GBSpH_seHE

EDLD5301 Section ET8036 Week 5 Course Highlights

As I complete this course, I am a bit surprised by the personal growth I have felt. Perhaps it’s the fact that I spend most of my time with 8th graders and sometimes feel more like one of them than like an adult or that raising a strong willed child as a single parent had taken its toll on me; but, when I started this course I really didn’t have much confidence in anything anymore except my ability as a teacher. I had struggled through my first course feeling inadequate because I was taking far more time to complete my assignments than I felt I should and was questioning my sanity for wanting to continue the program.

This course has been quite the opposite. I see my confidence returning, even in the way I respond to my 20 year old when she, in typical 20 year old “I know everything and you are an idiot” fashion, reminds me that she is smarter than me. I also have noticed that my administrators, who have always held my teaching ability in high regard, seem to respond to me in a slightly different way. Almost with a new level of respect. It, of course, could just be my imagination or my own confidence level allowing me to see things in a new light; but, nevertheless, I’m enjoying the change.  

Sherri's Action Research Plan