New skills

Week three and Carolyn and I have been working hard to get our presentation done early and done well! We really make a good pair because we each have different skills yet think along the same lines when it comes to planning and implementing them. I'm glad we've decided to go early and get the most stressful assignement of the semester done. In doing this project I have learned how to use weebly, have gotten better at making a prezi, and am learning how to use iMovie. These are are skills that I think will be useful to me in the future and not just for this class and that is really what is most important to me right now. Looking forward to teaching our lesson on Tuesday and hopefully Amy won't be the class clown with the recorder like she was with the drawings! : )

Face to face classes vrs. taking class from home

Face to face classes vrs. taking class from home

I have been thinking a lot about the Bb collaborate learning verses face to face learning in class tonight and although I really enjoy the classes in my pajamas and in my bed, I think that I feel more focused and believe that I learn more when I am in a face to face learning environment. I also believe I am more likely to ask questions when we are all together in the classroom. Living 45 minutes south of here, I always think that I would prefer to go home and get comfy so that when class is over I am home and do not still have my long drive. However, in our last class with Jung Lee, she had us attend all classes and I really enjoyed learning in that style. Today I was going to go home but luckily I checked in to see if we should come to class and boy was I lucky I did! I think I would be totally lost if I tried to attend this first class on Bb Collaborate. I also enjoy the learning the personalities of the different instructors and you don't really get that when you take class at home. With that being said, I'm sure I will still take some classes from home, especially when we are watching presentations, but I have come to the conclusion that I like the face to face classes over the at home learning.
The only down side is that Amy is seemingly getting sick and hopefully now that we all just spent four hours in a room with her, we won't get sick too!!! : )

Class from home!

Finding time!

Carolyn and I are in the process of doing our "pre" work for our big class project. Having fun and we are excited about some of our ideas but a little worried about having only one and a half weeks left until completion. Finding the time to work together has been challenging. We are trying to find times that line up during the school day where we have 20 minutes here and there to work together but it is very difficult, especially since I teach in both the middle school and high school. Right now we are in the midst of musical season and this year I'm playing in the pit orchestra. (Andrew Wright and I alternate years conducting and this year I get to play)!

So that is taking up a lot of time from rehearsals to personal practice time. I also play in and help run an adult community band called, The South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble. This rehearses every Monday night for 3 hours and also involves personal practice time and a lot of work as the Personnel Manager. Next up...Jazz band. Our jazz festival is in only 3 weeks. I help organize this evening of 9 bands performing, judges rooms, food and make the program for this event and rehearse every Thursday after school. On top of that, I'm conducting a few honors group and I travel 45 minutes to and from work each day. Don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining and I love all that I do! I consider myself very lucky to do something I love!  It is very hard to find enough hours in the day to get everything done and make our project as good as it can be. A little panicked and worried but am going to to try to take it one day at a time and just do the best that I can. Oh yeah, and then there's the day job of actually teaching! Would love just a few more hours in a day....