Neophyte blogger begins her Trek

I've never blogged before.  Don't really have time to blog.  Not sure of the purpose of blogging.  But....somewhere deep in my soul, blogging is calling to me.  My goal is to compose one blog per week.  I am hoping that this will improve my spelling and writing, and assist me in reflecting upon my personal and professional lives, and generally expect this exercise to make me look good.  :)  Can't blame a girl for trying, right?

What's going on?
There are really four facets of my life right now:  Work at WFHS, Work at GAVS, Tennis and Running, and Home and Family.  I plan to organize my blog to address each of these areas of my life.

Work at WFHS
I've been working as a long term substitute French and Spanish teacher at West Forsyth High School.  I'm enjoying working with the students and getting back into a formal, face-to-face class room.  I forgot how rewarding it can be to make a learning connection with a student:  To see theme finally grasp a concept that has eluded them or help them to make a connection to a bigger idea and give a lesson meaning.  This is why I love teaching and working with pupils.

 Coming back to the classroom has also helped to understand how much I've grown as an educator.  I started out as such a conservative, old-school education, always thinking about rigor and the integrity of an assessment.  Now, I'm much more concerned about the learning, growth and success of my students.  I've become a disciple of remediation.  I've seen how well it works.  It changes attitudes so profoundly that what was once viewed as impossible progress by the student is now attainable just because the students believes that they can.

Work at GAVS
I'm a bit defeated on this front.  I developed the French 2 course that I am now teaching for the first time.  It's littered with errors and typos, which is frustrating.  Also, the writing assignments, which are the keystone of the course and my proudest innovation, are a miserable failure.  I would say that two of the main factors are that: 1) the process is too lengthy and 2) the fact that students don't seem to understand how to navigate the site.  They can't find the discussion forums and don't understand the expectations for the pre-writing peer editing discussion forum.  They can not find the peer review forms and do not know how to critically examine writing assignment.  I get feedback like, Looks good to me." or "Great job!" with no supporting evidence our comment.  I suppose that this is a teaching opportunity.  But frankly, some of these students are so far behind, they want to rush to get through assignment.  Any additional instruction or support that I offer is just ignored.

Thinking about what I can do, I created a voice thread with step-by-step screen shots and verbal directions on how to find and make posts to the discussion forums.  I'm going to do the same on the writing process and post it on the course homepage and in the Help discussion forum.

On another note, I applied for admission to the Valdosta State University's online EdS in Instructional Technology degree program.  Have been ardently working on my 1500 word admission essay.  Am really getting a bit obsessive about it at this point.  I am also concerned about my GRE scores.  They meet the requirements, but I took the GRE in 1995.  ETS no longer maintains scores from exams taken prior to 2000. Gosh I feel old!  I'm trying to convince VSU to take a scanned copy of my original paper report.

Tennis and Running
Not much to report on my athletics.  I'm in a bit of a hiatus since I'm working full time at WFHS and part time at GAVS.  This doesn't leave much time for working out.  However, the WFHS gig ends March 11 and I am looking forward to starting in five leagues:

• USTA Friday Mixed Doubles
• Ultimate Tennis Mixed Doubles
• ALTA Thursday women at Sienne
• ALTA Sunday women at Hampton
• Simple 8 day singles

I hope this helps me to shed the pounds and flab that I 've put on from the stress of working two jobs!  I'm going to try to fully enjoy what may be my last season of day tennis.  Hopefully this WFHS assignment will translate into full time employment.  It's time.

I am also working with the Hampton Tennis Committee to plan the End of Mixed Winter Season Party.  I have proposed a Mardi Gras theme.  We'd all draw colored doubloons to form tennis teams of 3 or 4 men and 3 or 4 of women.  We'll play in a team tennis format of: 1 set of men's singles, 1 set of women's singles, 1 set of men's doubles, 1 set of women's doubles, and two sets of mixed doubles.  Each time you individually win, you get a set of beads.  After play ends, you get to pull one string from the dip box with the goal of pulling the string that has the Mardi Gras baby on the hidden end.  One man and women will become King and Queen of Mardi Gras and win a private lesson with Zenda (contingent upon a budget from the tennis committee).  All three teams bring Mardi Gras themed food.  Laissez les bons temps roller!



Conclusion
So goes my life for the next two weeks.  Busy, busy, busy.  Hoping to stay healthy and enjoy the last of my time at WFHS.  Looking forward to updating "MY BLOG" (he-he, she laughs giddily!) next week.