Interesting, part 2

it takes forever to transcribe a 6 minute conversation!)  But it is going well so far.  This project, although it has taken a different twist than what I thought I was going to be doing, is interesting!

Interesting...

I  was excited- to say the least that my student that I selected for this project spoke three languages- and has a very rich cultural background!  When I sat down with him last week to begin my part of Task 3 that had to be transcribed...  I was shocked to find that he is not fluent in L2 as I had been told he was.  I did leave the recorder going past one minute, hoping that he would begin to read at least a few words at some point.  I really am glad that I left it on- because he began giving me an extensive background of the Muslim religion!  Anyhow, I am excited about it now- and wound up with a LONG recording- (it takes forever to transcribe a  

Warning - mostly groans

I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of work required for this class and balancing it with the amount of work I have keeping my classroom up and running.  I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get all of anything done.  I feel like I'm just scraping by, especially at home.  Here it is, Sunday, and I've spent 12 hours working on either my lesson plans and grading, or working on Task 2.  I got to spend almost no time today with my husband or son, aside from just being in the same room with them.  I feel like I'm building the plane while I'm flying it (to borrow a phrase from a GCPS head honcho), and my plane is going down, fast!  May day!  May day!

On the somewhat up side, I did get my recording done, and I got a good start on Task 2 this morning.

Task 2 and Task 3

I am feeling so overwhelmed by the amount of things on my plate. However, I do feel better after having read Lisa's new email about Thursday nights class. I can't seem to find a quiet time during the day to get my students recording done. We have begun several times but always get interrupted. My children seem to be more demanding at this point in the school year than in years past. I may have to keep my little one with me during the first part of specials tomorrow to get a clear recording. To be honest about task 3 I haven't even looked at what all we need to have done. I do however know that I completed one part which I thought went in task 1 so that is now done for task 3. I just need more time in the day with work, toddler, normal household duties, homework for staff development classes, and lesson planning I feel I'm not putting my all into this class. To top it all on Wednesday night my home computer dumped it physical memory so I have to say I'm just a groaner  this week and don't have any glows.

Glows and Groans

I made a post earlier today glowing about my experience recording my student this week. We actually had fun! I used a flip camera and recorded him in the little room where our school does the announcements in the morning. He thought it was so cool! Made me smile to see him so excited.  I also said that I felt this past week’s task was helpful with giving me information for task 2.  My groan was that there just never seems to be enough hours in the day for everything: homework, “fabulous” lesson plans, RBES, FBA’s, SST’s, PLC’s, teaching, 2 young children and a husband at home…  My new groan is that I’m having to redo this post because when I went on again this afternoon to see if anyone commented, the one I typed this morning wasn’t there!

Trying not too be too much of a groaner but. . .

I guess my glow this week is that I love that so much of what we are learning in our class is so easy to put to work in my class. As we are bombarded with so much Common Core Best Practices in staff development, I find myself saying, “Cool! This goes right along with what I read about last night in my Linguistics book,” or “This ties in well with what we learned in class last week!” It just seems to come together so well. Now let me vent my groans. So much to do and not enough close to enough time! GTES conference this week that I am stressed about, reflections and Task 2, normal work for school -papers to grade, tests to create, lesson plans, and it goes on and on. Somewhere in there I am supposed to be a great mom and wife. Task 2 WILL get done, though.

Glows and Groan

I actually had some unplanned fun with my student this week when getting my recording. I  asked to borrow one of the school's flip cameras, and the media specialist set it up in the little room where they record the announcements each day. We even sat at the little table in front of the backdrop they use. My kindergartener thought that was the coolest thing! I did a running record with him, then recorded our conversation of the book at the end. We pretended that we were doing it on the announcements. When we finished, I let him watch it back. My student was so excited, it made my day! This past week's assignment, I think, was helpful in giving me information I can use with task 2 this week. My groan is the usual too much to do and not enough time to do it all... homework, "fabulous" lesson plans, RBES, FBA's, data for SST's, two small children and one husband!