karen

Karen's Journal 3-27-11 Where to begin? Started the class Tues, March 22nd - two weeks into it. I was a bit overwhelmed - but yet felt like I was holding my own that first night. That was short lived - when I turned on my computer Wednesday nite it was almost as though it was for the first time ever - everything seemed foreign. Fear and lack of confidence gripped me; but I plugged away for a few hours anyways and at least was able to install "Tweekdeck" and tried doing a few "tweets". I ended the evening feeling frustrated - unable to figure out how the things I learned the previous evening applied to me and what I was to do will all that information. I knew it was definately time to stop for the evening. Started again fresh Thursday evening - this time with a //plan// in place - - going back to course work from the first two nites and slowly piecing it all together. (this was of course after calling the instructor asking if I was in over my head). I plugged away for a few hours - with things beginning to make sense. Still overwhelmed - but not nearly to the extent of the previous night. I continued Friday morning going thru the things I missed the first two evenings - and now was becoming a little more excited that things were just beginning to click. After meeting with the instructor Friday afternoon (million thanks again) I felt as though I was able to piece together the things that were disjointed in my mind. I can truly say I'm excited about what I've already learned and the endless supplies of resources "out there". I'm finding it addicting. It's fun finding people to follow and exciting to find that some are now following me. (My two adult children are still trying to wrap their brains around their mother being on twitter). I've already found some awesome teaching blogs to follow with new/creative ideas - something I'm always searching for. Now I realize I have to work on time management. I still feel a little overwhelmed when I first turn my computer on - as far as where to start. Thanks for the suggestion of setting daily goals. It helps me to stay focused. In closing, I'm blown away by technology and all the information that's out there -- but thrilled to have the tools to BEGIN to access it. Basically the only thing I've ever used before was "google". And now I have information come to ME on google reader -- who'd of thought? All so exciting!!

4-3-11 I still feel like my head is spinnling with information overload. For some reason I've always been intimidated by technology (which I know I can overcome by not giving up and thru constant exposure of trial and error). Fortunately the more I keep plugging away each day - the easier and less imtimidating it's becoming. My husband bought me a laptop this past week. Aside from learning a new setup and new features; I was extremely excited that I was able to transfer my " favorites" from my old computer to my diigo library and spent a lot of time tagging and organizing the items that I had saved. (That was a definate highlight). It has also really helped this week to stick with a plan of //trying// to commit to half hour blocks at a time and focus on only one thing during that time -- rather than random jumping back and forth as I had been doing before. I'm also really enjoying the time spent reading blogs. I've been lead to many great websites where I've gotten numerous new things to add to my curriculum and weekly classroom routine. It remains a constant/exciting learning experience.

Karen - I am so glad you decided to stick with this class! I know you have been overwhelmed and frustrated more than once, but that (to me) shows growth and a commitment to yourself as a learner! We are all at different levels of readiness (just as are our own students) and that makes it more exciting for me as an instructor, when I see someone that is frustrated, stick with it. Your project idea is BRILLIANT! I can't wait to see it in a few weeks. Amy  4-11-11 Thanks for the encouraging words. This has actually been a good week. I've spent most of my time working on my project. It took me a while to figure out what it was I actually wanted to do with my idea-- but then it all started falling into place. I was eager to use photo-story because it looked the most user friendly. I started by writing out the letters of the alphabet and then plugging in words that were associated with the things that I've learned -- my social networking journey. My husband --(bless his heart for all his patience) -- taught me how to snip and pa int so I could capture the pictures that I wanted. I spent the better part of Friday doing this - and then eventually uploading them into photo story. I became a little frustrated with photo story though; because it wouldn't let me edit my text more -all the letters had to be the same size/color. That's when my husband showed my how to use powerpoint to do all the "little extras" that I was wanting to do. It was really time consuming inserting my pages into powerpoint - but I found it both fun and therapeutic to take my time editing the pages the way I wanted. I had never used powerpoint before so I was also motivated and encouraged to have learned yet another thing. There's still tweeking yet to do -- but I'm feeling really good about where I'm at with my project. We also installed firefox --- no more problems with retrieving e-mails. Thanks for the suggestion!

4-17-11 My project is basically complete - except for maybe a little tweaking. What a great feeling. This whole class has been an awesome experience. It's obvious that I came into this with very limited skills & experience. It's stretched me well out of my comfort zone -- for which I'm very grateful. I consider it to have been a sort of launch pad for me. It has me excited and motivated to keep learning. I bought two books this past week - one on powerpoint and the other on windows 7. I'm anxious to take my time and go through them. I also have a co-worker now on Twitter. It fun to have people I know to follow. My son is still not so sure how he feels about having his "mom" follow him on Twitter. He's definately not ready for me to further my computer/networking skills. So now I'm thinking about going on Facebook as well. Again, this has been quite a journey for me. One that I know I have to keep up on so that I don't lose the skills I've learned. Thanks again for your patience.