PedagogyII

Ped II Audio for Blog

2007-04-12T19:54:00.001-07:00

Ped II

Final Thoughts

2007-04-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

As the trimester starts to draw to a close I find that this would be a great time to reflect on my journey through the Ped II class. The dust is beginning to settle and I look back on how much I have learned this trimester I realize that I have a great foundation. I can honestly say that I am not an expert in pedagogy but I also would not consider myself a novice. I do believe that I know where to find the critical information I will need to have in order to have a meaningful Capstone experience. The information shared with my colleagues this winter will be a valuable resource to ensure that I take time to reflect on how I will plan to develop a useful online experience for my students. The last few weeks discovering a variety of tools and teaching strategies will play an important role in how I design my capstone. I am looking forward to the interaction I'll have with who ever my Capstone adviser will be as well as a continued connection with my peers.

Collaboration with Wiki's

2007-04-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

I recently applied for a PB Wiki presenter package which included 3 free gold package upgrades to share with other educators. I was a little skeptical at first but I finally received the package of information which includes educational materials to teach students and faulty how to use a wiki and of course what a wiki is. I've been playing around with it and it seems very user friendly. The original PB wiki that I was using in design II was the basic package with no security features with it so I wasn't using it with my classes at school. The free gold package has a lot of bells and whistles including the security features which is important to me.
I am using one of the three free memberships and I shared the other two with two educational colleagues. I plan on sitting down with them and brainstorming ways to use the wiki's for our classes. The new PB wiki seems to have a lot of interesting features like adding widgets. Some of the widgets that can be added are calendars, slide shows, chat rooms, rss feeds, You Tube Video, table of contents, tabs on recent visitors, google gadgets, and yackpack voice chat. There are also great editing features. Check out the PB Wiki slide show I made on the right. To visit my PB Wiki work in progress click on the URL to the right.

RSS feed to CMS WIKI

2007-04-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

AS part of my CMS I have set up a wiki and also have a section for RSS feeds for a few tv stations. Here is an example of an assignment and how this can be used by students to share up to date info.:

Why Use Seatbelts?

Information on head restraint which goes hand in hand with seat belts. [http://www.wptz.com/automotive/11534658/detail.html]

Technology Tools

2007-04-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

This past week I was able to start using some of the tools for my CMS which will be the foundation for my Capstone. Here is something I made in Flickr : I used this as an example of how to do an assignment in the blog on my CMS

Yourself (draft)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7350634@N02/447859968/

Great Place to learn about Technology Use

2007-03-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/archives/05-01-2006_05-31-2006.htm The above site was just to good to pass up on. So many things to read,share and experience.

Guidelines for using Wikis and Blogs

2007-03-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

Use the link provided on the right to get to this site. It looks to be a great source to use. You can also copy and paste the following URL:

http://web2debate.wikispaces.com/Guidelines+for+using+Blogs+and+Wikis

Instructional Tools

2007-03-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

This week we are researching instructional tools to use in our classrooms. These tools should allow students to create an active learning community where they ca not only solve problems but also find their own problems to solve. The interaction that can be accomplished using these tools is just amazing. The interaction can be within the class (teacher/ student,student/student) within the state, the nation and yes even the world. Scaffolding experiences can be accomplished by the expert/ novice approach to learning and understanding. Educational tools such as monkeysurvey can be used for formative assessment during the course. Tools such as websites and email can keep connecting classrooms to the community. On line learning is such an eye opener. The information below this article was shared with my classmates as well as educational peers. It will be interesting if I can get my fellow educators to try out these tools to improve their instruction.

The Best Tech Tools for Teachers
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech234.shtml
¬ß Tools for Academics http://jcm2044.net/AcademicTools/index.shtml

3. Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NYAUeIH20M

Wiki Education Videos

2007-03-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

What is a Wiki?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmByB0sIPog

Is a PB Wiki Secure?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fWDyUGlm_s

Is PB Wiki Easy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ls99Qgoq4w

What is your favorite PB Wiki Feature?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPohjGFQs1E

How do You Use PB Wiki?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hSzJ0Hj_eo

How does collaboration work?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWujpCIX6_A

Helping educators educate?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av2yofWSdU0

Great Chance for Wiki Education

2007-03-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

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UBD & DI

2007-03-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Three key instructional roles for teachers: direct instructor, facilitator, and coach.
As an instructor it is important to understand that students need to construct their own solutions to solve problems. One way to ensure that your students learn by doing is to make sure that you act more as a facilitator and coach than as the direct instructor ( Lecturer).

Three Stages of Backward Design:

Stage 1

Share the content standards and desired learning outcomes with students at the start of the unit.

Post and review the essential questions that will be explored during the unit.

List the important knowledge and skills to be learned

The purpose of stage one is to make sure the students understand why they are there and what they will hopefully will walk away with after the class is over.

Stage 2

At the start of a new unit, present to the students the types of assessments that will show evidence of learning ( and understanding) by the end of the unit.
Share the culminating performance tasks and accompanying rubrics so students will know what will be expected and how their work will be judged.
Show models of student work on similar tasks so students can see what quality work looks like.

Stage two should allow students know how they will be evaluated on what their competency is at the end of the unit. The importance of showing the students what quality work looks like is so that they will have a sense of what direction they will need to take in order to deliver a quality project of their own.

Stage 3

Explicitly connect for the students the learning experiences and direct instruction during the unit with the desired results, essential questions, and expected performances
Have students regularly reflect on what they are learning and how it will help them with upcoming performances and tasks as well as in life and later in school.

The above information was taken out of the text "Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design. I found these lines to be very helpful in keeping me on track as I develop my final project for Ped II

During step three the students should show a sense of ownership with the educational process and be able to reflect on what they know through such activities as a journal, group activities with reflection on what has been learned and how it can be used.

The whole purpose of backward design is to make sure that the instructor understands what is going to be the goals and objectives of the course first . Second is to develop an understanding of how the student will be assessed and last of all devise a strategy of what teaching methods you will use to make sure the students will understand how to use what they have learned and not just learn facts.

Getting it Done

2007-03-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

The post below gives me a great deal of insight on how important it is to think things through even on the night before a big presentation.I like the way that Elaine emphasizes "Practice, Practice,Practice". I say this to my students all the time and it was great to hear a pro before the big game use it to motivate herself to give her best. Good Luck Elaine.

I have been personally wrestling with this ever since a proposal I made to present at a regional conference was accepted. I knew months ago that I was to deliver a presentation for NERCOMP in Worcester on Tuesday, March 20. But I waited until last week to actively start working on it.

I think a good deal of the reason was that I was struggling with what to say that was original and new. What I finally came to terms with (thankfully, and not a moment too soon), was two things:
1. My presentation was not accepted on the premise that I was announcing a new find, and perhaps even more importantly, that
2. the way in which I think of things and express them in indeed "new" in that I will be speaking from my experience.

I am pleased with what I was finally, after much angst, able to create. Now I just need to practice, practice, practice. After all, the presentation is not until tomorrow Tuesday at 4:30. Wish me well!

PS - The title of my presentation is: Mashups are not potatoes: Implementing Powerful Web 2.0 Tools

-Elaine

Instructional Strategies and Methods

2007-03-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today I found a great site for instructional strategies and methods. The site simplified all the 5 parts of strategy and listed quite a few methods as well as giving useful sites to visit with very useful information. I am going to copy and paste a post I made today to the rest of the class as I feel it will be useful for future reference:

I guess it's true that when confronted with lemons you should make lemonade. Just when I started to panic about losing a book I find a gem of a source on a site. I am going to post the instructional methods found on the site I posted for everyone and then choose a few that I like as a student and ones that I use as an instructor and new ones that I hadn't even considered.

A Listing of Instructional Strategies and Methods

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/direct.html ]Direct Instruction

Possibilities include
[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/structuredoverview/index.html ]Structured Overview

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/lecture/index.html ] Lecture

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/explicitteaching/index.html ]Explicit Teaching

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/drill/index.html ]Drill & Practice

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/compareconstrast/index.html ]Compare & Contrast

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/didactic/index.html ]Didactic Questions

Demonstrations

Guided & Shared - [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/guided/guided.html ]reading, listening, viewing, thinking

-----------------

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/intera.html ]Interactive Instruction

Possibilities include
[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/debates/index.html ]Debates

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/roleplaying/index.html ]Role Playing

Panels

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/brainstorming/index.html ]Brainstorming

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/peerpartner/index.html ]Peer Partner Learning

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/discussion/index.html ]Discussion

Laboratory Groups

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/think/index.html ]Think, Pair, Share

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/coop/index.html ]Cooperative Learning Groups

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/jigsaw/index.html ]Jigsaw

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/psolving/index.html ]Problem Solving

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/structuredcon/index.html ]Structured Controversy

Tutorial Groups

Interviewing

Conferencing

-----------------

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/indirect.html ]Indirect Instruction

Possibilities include
[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/psolving/index.html ]Problem Solving

Case Studies

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/readmeaning/index.html ]Reading for Meaning

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/inquiry/index.html ]Inquiry

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/reflectivediscussion/index.html ]Reflective Discussion

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/writinginform/index.html ]Writing to Inform

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/formation/index.html ]Concept Formation

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/conceptmap/index.html ]Concept Mapping

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cattain/index.html ]Concept Attainment

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cloze/index.html ]Cloze Procedure

-----------------

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/indepen.html ]Independent Study

Possibilities include
Essays

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cai/index.html ]Computer Assisted Instruction

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/journal/index.html ]Journals

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/logs/index.html ]Learning Logs

Reports

Learning Activity Packages

Correspondence Lessons

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/learningcontracts/index.html ]Learning Contracts

Homework

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/researchprojects/index.html ]Research Projects

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/assignedqu/index.html ]Assigned Questions

Learning Centers

-----------------

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/experi.html ]Experiential Learning

Possibilities include
[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/fieldtrips/index.html ]Field Trips

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/narratives/index.html ]Narratives

Conducting Experiments

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/simul/index.html ]Simulations

Games

Storytelling

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/focusedimaging/index.html ]Focused Imaging

Field Observations

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/roleplaying/index.html ]Role-playing

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/synetics/index.html ]Synetics

Model Building

Surveys

For direct Instruction I would say that I do quite a bit of drill and practice. When teaching a student driving skills ,repetition is a very useful tool. The important thing to remember is to make sure my students are practice the correct techniques because it is just as easy to have bad habits develop as it is good ones. I would also say that Didactic questions are also an important part of my instructional method as I use "WHY" as part of my vocabulary almost as much as I breath.
For indirect instruction I would have to say that problem solving is my favorite method as we are constantly trying to come up with multiple solutions and then trying to chose the best solution to a problem. I found the method called the "Cloze Procedure "o be interesting. In a nutshell it's a way of leaving key words out of a sentence and then have the students see the empty sentence and come up with the words to complete the idea to make the most sense.
Under Experiential Learning I have to say my favorite would have to be field trips. Although we are constantly on a field trip in driver education sometimes where we are going takes on special meaning. Today was a good example of this as we went to Brattleboro to take on the Rotary from all angles. I could sense the adrenalin in the car as we left the parking lot. Great teaching moment. No need to motivate today the field trip took care of that.
As far as Independent Study I would have to say that I am looking forward to my students using blogs in the metabolite sense to review what has been learned and also to see what students might add to the actual activities that we do in the car.
As far as interactive instruction I would have to say that I enjoy using the "Think , Pair and Share". I do this several times during the course of a quarter and it really is neat to watch the students come up with viable solutions to problems. As you can see I really think that the site I posted really put all the information in a neat tidy to use package. Just in case you didn't go to this site I'm going to post it again: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/index.html

I hope that everyone bookmarks this site as I know you will use it over and over again!!
Believe it or not as I finished reading the Fink article I finally made sense of the whole idea of designing a course by Fink. Up until this time I was in a little fog. The five steps in the initial design phase are: situational factors, learning goals,feedback and assessment procedures, teaching / learning activities and integrated components. The intermediate phase consists of 3 parts: structure for the course, instructional strategy and overall learning activities. The final design phase consists of 4 parts; grading systems, possible problems, syllabus and a plan for evaluation. Constructivism is the main element for Fink lovers to follow in course design.

Readings 3/2/07

2007-03-02T18:37:00.000-08:00

Wow March already.
Readings this week were great.
How People Learn: Read chapters 1-3&5.
Chapter 1- Wisdom of Practice. Learning with understandingUnderstanding, usable knowledge.Pre-Existing Knowledge used to constuct new knowledge.Active Learning-recognize when you understand and when you need more information, Metacognition-sense making, self assessment,reflection.

Chapter 2- Experts differ from Novices. Expert brings more knowledge to the table. Experts chunk information.Experts recognize useful patterns of information and big ideas. Fluent Retrieval- automatic responses. Expert not always the best teacher,problem identifying students problems. Adaptive Expertise- flexible to new problems. Not Expert but instead Accomplished Novice ( Know that they do not know it all)

Chapter 3- Tranfer Learning. Degree of mastery. Understanding vs memorization. Time to learn. Understand when ,where and why to use new info. Motivation to learn.

Chapter 5- Mind & Brain, need more info to understand this area of learning.

Learning Theories- http://www.patsula.com/usefo/webbasedlearning/tutorial1/learning_theories_full_version.html

According to Mecklenburger (1993), the characteristics of an "educated person" in society today are as follows:
Because now we live in an information age and electronic networks are linking the world into a ?global village? (McLuhan, 1964), an educated person is one who has the ability to find what is known, then to think about what is known, to reflect upon changes in what is known, to explore, to share, to debate, to question, to compare and contrast, to solve problems, to engage in what today?s educators call ?higher order thinking skills?, and to contribute to what is known. (p. 42)

Online Chat

2007-02-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

Just finished our first online chat. First impression I had after it was over was the same as I have with F2F, never enough time to cover it all. Elaine kept it organized by setting ground rules. Very important no matter where you are teaching but even more so on line. I thought that by keeping us on task with open ended questions was a great way to make sure that everyone contributed. I was a bit overwhelmed with how fast the responses came in but I was a little prepared for this after Will in our design II class showed us a log from one of his chat sessions. But wow did it fly. I was glad to hear Elaine say she would post the chat for those who were not there and also for those that were there to go back and reflect. Interesting comment from our guest observer Chuck who said he could feel the excitement in the class. I cracked a couple of smiles and laughs myself. So it as a very useful tool. When I run this type of chat for one of my classes of 15-25 I think I'll break into groups of 5-8 students and rotate students from the different groups. Great experience.

resource on either assessment or evaluation

2007-02-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

These are a collection of resources for assessment and evaluation from our classmembers. Thought this would be a great place to store the information for future use and to share with others who might go to this site.http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/mla/index.html,http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/mla/assess.html ,"Not on the Test" ,http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/senate/committees/scotl/tevguide.pdf,http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/impact/QuickStart/Readme.htm,http://www.teachervision.fen.com/assessment/new-teacher/48354.htmlKISS: Assessment-do it often, vary the way that it is done, make sure your objectives align with them, make them tough enough so that students break a sweat but easy enough to make them want to continue to learn, work and fun go hand in hand, make sure the student can observe that they have learned and can use the information.Evaluation- do it in the middle, do it at the end, do it to improve.Just Don't Do It To DoIt !!!

Where am I after the 2/10 class.

2007-02-12T17:59:00.000-08:00

We have spent the past two weeks digesting information on what are goals and objectives. After Saturdays class I was able to see that ADDIE : Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate was a common thread in course design no matter if you are using Fink,Bloom,Dick and Carey or who ever.

Using the concept of backward design: 1) Where do you want to be at the end of the course? What do you want the students to be able to do and know? 2) How do you know that the students have achieved the goals? This is where the objectives come into play. 3) last of all you have to ask 'How are you going to get the students to where the they can meet the objectives. What activities and resources can you develop to cause significant learning to take place.

Goals: Broad plan of attack. Fink attacks this subject with the use of his six steps of significant learning. 1) Foundational Knowledge- things to remember,content. 2)Application-how the student uses critical thinking,problem solving,decision making.How the student will use communication and technology skills as well as learning how to manage complex tasks. 3)Integration- can the student make connections with other ideas and people to share and exchange knowledge. 4) Human Dimensions- learning about ones strengths and weaknesses and learning how to understand and interact with others. 5) Caring- being able to change and adapt to the community you are in and respect other communities that you are not part of. 6) Learning How to Learn- learn skills that will make you a better learner. Learn how to ask and answer questions. Learn how to find answers on your own . I must say that this is quite a lot to put in place but I can easily see how using all six steps in developing your course will really be a benefit the growth of a student as a learner rather than just a student full of facts.

Objectives: These are the components that an educator can use to see what his/her students have acquired along the journey through the learning process. Objectives need to be clear. Objectives need to be challenging but realistically reachable. Objectives should be designed as a stepping block to the next learning experience (life long learning) not an end in themselves.

As we left class on 2/10 I can honestly say I'm still confused with the process of course design but I can also say I left less confused than when we started which is a nice feeling to have .

Week 3 Readings

2007-01-31T18:37:00.000-08:00

I finished my readings and posts early this week because of no posted readings or assignments yet in my Design II class. Rather than wait for the big rush I decided to get ahead in this class.
The first reading out of our text "Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design was fairly interesting. I read the first three chapters with chapter 1 dealing with UbD and DI as an essential partnership. The partnership is important for todays educators because of the need to make sure that the content is being covered at the same time recognizing the need to meet the needs of your students and their different approaches to learning. I really enjoyed the title to chapter 2 "What Really Matters in Teaching? (The Students). The chapter dealt with teaching Responsively .By that I mean that you must develop relationships with your students and know who they are and understand what you can do to get them to succeed. Chapter 3 dealt with what really matters in learning and that would be CONTENT. Part of the chapter dealt with Backward Design and it's three stages.1) Identify desired results -what students should know,understand and be able to do.essential questions.what "enduring" understandings are desired. 2)Determine acceptable evidence- how do we assess the desired results.Will students develop proficiency.#) Plan Learning experince and instruction- activities, sequences, resouces.
We also spent a great deal of time researching the terms goals and objectives. The most important thing that I learned from this activity was that the objectives are the most important part of instructional design. The importance of writting clear objectives that can be assessed so that you know that the students have a good grasp of the cocepts taught are important.
I now have some excellent resources to go to with the Taxonomy of Significant Learning and Blooms Taxonomy. These resources will be very useful to develop goals and objective strategies for my final project and also my capstone.

Reflections

2007-01-27T18:48:00.001-08:00

PED II Reflection
We met for the second time F2F today. Class went so well that we even went into overtime(Super Bowl is next week). My discussion with Craig covered state testing for obtaining a high school doploma and how this would have an effect on course design. At first I was afraid it would have no bearing on the group discussion ,but it did. The thought that Regency Exams are more important that " Significant Learning " still bothers me .We toyed around with seeing how Fink, Dick & Carey and IEEE would fit into the ADDIE Model (Analize,Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate. This caused a lot of excellent discussion but as we stated at the end of the discussion "It was only the START". We were able to take care of some of the jargon like what is the difference between a Goal and an Objective. Goals are the big picture and objectives define the goals.We discussed the issue of Backward Design. I'm still a little confused on this issue but I am sure it will become clear after the readings these next two weeks and online responses.I liked the JIGSAW Activity where we broke down into homogenious groups first and then broke up by heterogenious groups to compare models. I think I'll try this out in my classes at school during the next two weeks. I could also see this stimulating responses in an online setting.That covers this week. Oh I forgot .Jill brought in some treats as well as Craig bringing in some M&M's.And Meghan is bringing doughnuts next time from this geat doughnut place over in Manchester. What does this have to do with Ped II. It makes for a pleasant learning setting.Jack

Subject: Fw: 5 Lessons about the way we treat people

2007-01-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

Subject: Fw: 5 Lessons about the way we treat people1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.During my second month of college, our professorgave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious studentand had breezed through the questions until I readthe last one:"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman severaltimes. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?I handed in my paper, leaving the last questionblank. Just before class ended, one student asked ifthe last question would count toward our quiz grade."Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers,you will meet many people. All are significant. Theydeserve your attention and care, even if all you dois smile and say "hello."I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned hername was Dorothy.2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the RainOne night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African Americanwoman was standing on the side of an Alabama highwaytrying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car hadbroken down and she desperately needed a ride.Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.A young white man stopped to help her, generallyunheard of in those conflict-filled 1960's. The mantook her to safety, helped her get assistance andput her into a taxicab.She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down hisaddress and thanked him. Seven days went by and aknock came on the man's door. To his surprise, agiant console color TV was delivered to his home. Aspecial note was attached.It read:"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highwaythe other night. The rain drenched not only myclothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.Because of you, I was able to make it to my dyinghusband's bedside just before he passed away... Godbless you for helping me and unselfishly servingothers."Sincerely,Mrs. Nat King Cole3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember thosewho serve.In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop andsat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water infront of him."How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked."Fifty cents," replied the waitress.The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket andstudied the coins in it."Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.By now more people were waiting for a table and thewaitress was growing impatient."Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.The little boy again counted his coins."I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill onthe table and walked away. The boy finished the icecream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitresscame back, she began to cry as she wiped down thetable. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,were two nickels and five pennies..You see, he couldn' t have the sundae, because he hadto have enough left to leave her a tip.4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on aroadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see ifanyone would remove the huge rock. Some of theking's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came byand simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed theKing for not keeping! the roads clear, but none didanything about getting the stone out of the way.Then a peasant came along carrying a load ofvegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, thepeasant laid down his burden and tried to move thestone to the side of the road. After much pushingand straining, he finally succeeded. After thepeasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticeda purse lying in the road where the boulder hadbeen. The purse contained many gold coins and a notefrom the King indicating that the gold was for theperson who removed the boulder from the roadway. Thepeasant learned what many of us never understand!Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improveour condition.5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at ahospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz whowas suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her onlychance of recovery appeared to be a bloodtransfusion from her 5-year old brother, who hadmiraculously survived the same disease and haddeveloped the antibodies needed to combat theillness. The doctor explained the situation to herlittle brother, and asked the little boy if he wouldbe willing to give his blood to his sister.I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking adeep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it willsave her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay inbed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did,seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then hisface grew pale and his smile faded.He looked up at the doctor and asked with atrembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".Being young, the little boy had misunderstood thedoctor; he thought he was going to have to give hissister all of his blood in order to save her.

Most importantly.................. "Work like youdon't need the money, love like you've never beenhurt, and dance like you do when nobody's watching."

Jack

2007-01-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hello

Just playing around with downloading a picture.

First week Pedagogy II

2007-01-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

Well I seem to be caught up with class despite the power outage and the birth of my grandson.One thing that I have learned this week is that when you design a course you should build in some wiggle room for students to catch up. Most of my instructors seem to be alert to the changes in the weather and know how to provide the wiggle needed to let everyone catch up. Over the years of teaching it always bothered me to see students have to deal with instructors who teach with tunnel vision. Great first week here at the Grad Center.