Star Exhibition Wrap-Up

Hello!  It’s Monday again.

I was very pleased with the Star Exhibition!   I learned about some new Stars, learned some new things about Old Stars, and learned some new 2.0 tricks.  Judging by the comments and the nominations, you did, too.

This assignment has been self-fulfilling in terms of feedback.  Over the next week or two, Justine will finalize your grades; this is a simple check-off procedure.

This morning I distributed all the “extra” nominations received to the various people who were nominated.  For the most part, I chose ELC email for this task – while I still really dislike ELC overall, the email function works pretty well.  (Especially since I discovered the little icon on the upper right of the “My Elearning Commons” view – which provides all email from all courses in one place.) So, in future, if you want to email me within ELC I will definitely find it.

I updated the Cohort 8 calendar by adding the Spring 2010 dates.

Also, I decided that the Design Idea Assignment was out of order (since we moved the Presentation date to Dec 5).  I changed the Design Idea due date to Dec 6.

The Planner is now up to date.

The Midterm Feedback form is still open, in case you haven’t done that yet – for about another week.

As you think ahead for the PPP, I hope you will plan to use a Web 2.0 method for your actual presentation.  As demonstrated Saturday, the tool can be sophisticated, or it can be as simple as uploading your Powerpoint file to Googledocs Presentations (a trick I have used many times myself). One lesson from the Exhibition is: use the best tool for the job.  Depending upon your topic and presentation style, the best tool choice will vary from team to team.

Finally, looking ahead – hoo boy. We have a furlough day Friday, and UGA will be dark.  This week, Dr. Clinton goes to a conference; next week,  I go to AASL.  Busy times!  So – I reiterate: if your need is urgent,  call.  In times like these, I will definitely fall behind in normal communication – and will be happy to receive an urgent phone call to relieve some of my guilt for letting emails sit too long.

Happy Halloween!

Intern Update; 6340 Wrapped

Hello! I hope you have enjoyed a few days off of graduate school. Most of you are right back into it for the summer.

I’d like to report that I’m all caught up with internship matters. That is:

• All of you should now be in WebCT/7460.
• I acted upon the “starting out” info you submitted a couple of weeks ago, as appropriate for each person.
• I created a Discussion Board for each person – which is private between you and me. Everyone now has at least a “starting out” message. From henceforth, I am in reactive mode – you do a step, and post on your Board the results, as appropriate. Follow the Checklist to the letter, and in sequence. You don’t actually have to report every little step; I think it’s clear where you have to wait for my action before going ahead.
• By “caught up” I mean that I’ve acted upon things, but some tasks take several days to 2 weeks to complete. In each case, I’ve acknowledged the task and given an idea of when it will be completed. For example, I must contact several system administrators, and that always takes time – phone tag and emails and delays, etc.

So, if you haven’t gone there yet, check out 7460 and especially your bulletin board. Also check “My Progress” for a quick view of your status.

EDIT 6340 wrapped up nicely. Course evals ended up 100% – thanks to all of you!

As for my schedule this summer, I don’t have one – I’m not really working, but will try to keep up with the little things. My computer is in the shop for 50,000-mile maintenance and my connection is too slow right now — maybe those are good things. No big trips planned; hope to do “homey” things.

Also, I changed the calendar name from 6300/6340 to Cohort 8.

Have fun on Saturday!

End of March!

Wow, the calendar is moving on.  We are coming up on our next-to-last meeting!  This is both encouraging and terrifying.  It’s nice to know we’re down to the last 1/3 (or less) of the semester, but there’s so much left to do before the end!

I look forward to seeing you Saturday, and after that there will be a 3-week interval – we’re all looking forward to that.

Today I updated the Planner by adding commentaries to the Supplemental column.  This week, I made new commentaries for the Riedling chapter and Bishop 16.  These won’t necessarily help you directly with your Order Draft (due Apr 5), but both are highly pragmatic.  Again, I realize that the commentaries can serve as sort of a shortcut if you don’t have time to read everything; but remember that they will not duplicate all the info in the readings.

Other news: registration was rather a debacle in some ways.  If you have a seat in a children’s lit course, be thankful.  Make sure you’re checking your UGAMail in case of after-the-fact registration problems.   Consult with your advisor if you are unsuccessful in registering, or if you have other questions.

Exhibition grades:  I’m working on these, enjoy ing them, not giving much feedback – and hope to be finished by Apr 4.  I plan to grade your Order Drafts much faster.

Exhibition Follow-up Part 2

The Planner is now ready for your use.

Don’t forget to do the Midterm Feedback.  I put it in the Supplemental column reluctantly, but it is truly optional.  I will very much appreciate if you can find 5 minutes to do it.

Busy times!  We’ll make it.

Exhibition Follow-up

I have more to do to follow up from Saturday, but here are a few notes:

I updated the Cohort 8 Course Rotation – mainly with minor course delivery details.

I updated the Advising Notes page with tweaks people have told me about.  There are rumors out there about more children’s lit courses available, and I’ve got people hunting for them.

Exhibits: I was very happy with these and had a lot of fun looking at them!  I plan to have them graded within 2 weeks.  I hope you’re not expecting much feedback this time – the Comments were designed to do that for you.  I wanted to read them before you took them home – but that just didn’t happen – oh well.

I haven’t updated the Planner yet, but hope to get to that tomorrow.

Field Experiences finished!

Finally.  Sorry it took so long – but I did keep within the 2 week-period, and I’ve been keeping up with a 7-day return cycle for all early submissions for everything.

This field experience assignment has inherent value, and I never provide much feedback on these. Exceptions are when I see something that must be addressed, or if there is a deduction – those are explained.  Check your dropbox for these cryptic bits of feedback.

Today’s report on course eval returns: 13%.  Thanks to these 3 people.

Post-Thanksgiving Updates

Hello! I hope you all had happy Thanksgivings.

So today is the day!  Everything due.

I’ll be on the road today, and so the best way to reach me is by cell.  Given the overall quietness as many people have submitted their final documents over the past few days, I’m not expecting a high level of panic. But if you need me, my number is on the WebCT homepage.

Your course eval is now available.

When you’re all done, celebrate!  And send me some sympathy as I start reading through the many wonderful things I “get” to grade.

Monday after last class update

I updated your Planner for the last time this semester (whee!)

I meant to say Saturday: just because we’re on hiatus does not mean that I’m out of touch.  This is especially true between now and when the grades are complete.  Your access to me remains the same until mid-December, and even after that I’ll be checking into my email on a regular basis.

Back to my grading pile!

Election Day Edition

It’s hard to work with all the excitement today!  I’m sure I’ll be parked in front of the television tonight to see how it all turns out.

I’ve worked on the Agenda for Saturday.  The main objective will be to discuss all things PDEP, and to enjoy our final guest Sandy Wise (SLMS at Creekland Middle).

In response to your feedback, I’ve tinkered a bit with some details in several places for clarification.  Here’s a list of improvements:

• Field Experience: changed to a two-document submission format.  The assignment looks messy now that I’ve edited it, but I hope it will make sense.  Simply put, you report the identification details in one document and everything else in another, and submit both to the same dropbox.
• PDEP: installed more internal links to provide more reading integration.
• PDEP: installed a menu bar at the top of the Assignment Description to help you have everything together in one place (a partial solution to a bigger problem).

Vote!  There will likely be more blogposts before class.

Pre-Exhibition News

Hello!

Thanks to those of you who checked in online last night – I learned a couple of things and we now know that the system basically works.  Here are some reminders and points for tomorrow:

• Before 9a tomorrow, login to WebCT VoiceDirect.  I will play music so that you will know if your sound is picking up.  While waiting, pull up the agenda in a different window.  The agenda has backup plans, troubleshooting suggestions, and the Exhibition link.
• The “meetings” tomorrow will be mostly me talking and you posing questions. This particular system is somewhat primitive, but a good way to introduce you to the Wimba tools – because there are only a couple of things to pay attention to.  You can “raise your hand” and/or type questions into the chat box.  Both of these will catch my attention, and I will recognize your “hand” so that you can ask your question.  There is a pause every time the mic changes hands. Only one person can talk at a time.  If you accidentally hit the hand button when someone else is talking, it will “raise” your hand.  If you do have a question, go ahead and hit the “hand” so that you show up in the line-up to ask a question.
• It’s fine to submit the rubric into the dropbox after class tomorrow.
• Demographic forms: the dropbox may say it’s due, but that’s not really true.  Due to the change of rules, and as we said in class, this form is now optional (but helpful for those of you without diversity experience).   Turn it in if you like, any time you like.

OK, that’s the round up for this morning!  I’m home later today if you need me.