thing # 5

I went to Flickr. That was another surprise! I was surprised how ignorant I am about all the possibilities that technology offers. My kids (19 and 23) are so comfortable and familiar with these sites and cannot believe that anyone could be so out of the loop.



The photo I downloaded was taken in Pompeii. My Reading I Sheltered class has just read a story about the Trojan Horse, and an informational text about earthquakes. (We started this unit before the eathquake in Haiti happened.) Next, we are going to read Pompeii --- Lost and Found and, the higher level readers, The Dog of Pompeii.

thing #3

Did I say for thing #2 that I have confidence in myself as a competent and effective learner? That confidence was severely shaken during the process of setting up my blog. Being completely new at this, I confused Blogger and Blogster. So, I registered with one and tried to log in with the other. Duh!!! I thought I was losing my mind, and agonized over how to break the news to Dr. Griffith and Dr. Claes --- the news that they had awarded a grant to someone with the mental capacity of a string bean. After many painful attempts, it finally dawned on me what I was doing wrong. Yes, blondie had struck again!

Creating the avatar was much more fun. I spent all afternoon trying on different outfits. (They all looked good on "me", even the swim suits --- what an experience!) I even managed to export the avatar to my blog. Maybe there is still hope for me?

Thing #2

When I watched the power point, I was surprised how many of the traits of a life-long learner were familiar to me. I have been going to school for most of my life: first for a degree in literature and linguistics, then in fashion merchandising and design; after a three year break, I took real estate courses to become a realtor, and as such I am required to take a number of hours of continuing education classes every year to keep my license current; three years ago, I decided that I would like to get certified to teach high school social studies, so I enrolled at Texas Tech for the required courses, and now that I finally know what I want to be when I grow up, I am studying again.

The trait that I see as my strength is trait # 4: confidence in myself as a competent and effective learner. My weakness is "playing". It seems that there is always so much to do that playing would be a waste of time, but maybe I am looking at it from the wrong angle. I will make an effort to incorporate "playing" into my learning.