Another lazy day. Last night, I got hung up on the dancing prisoners. After watching the videos, I did an Internet search to learn more about them. I even tried to post the web link, but my lack of techknowledge came back. The web link just wouldn't set on the page, so I gave up. Long story short, the dancing was done as a way to promote exercise. And yes, at first the prisoners were reluctant to dance, but (according the Yahoo News page) they were persuaded the dance. I am not sure what that meant. Anyway, my plan for an 11:00pm bedtime, became a 1:00am bedtime. As a result, I was in my lazy mode this morning.

I got out of bed about 9am. I immediately got online with the plan of being finished about 1:00pm, but once I started procrastinating, it was all over. I was wasting time for about 2 hours, when I finally decided to eat breakfast. Now, it is about 11:30am. I ate a couple of bowls of cold cereal, and...I went back to bed. I got out of bed about 3:30pm.

I decided that I would eat lunch before doing a couple of online lessons. I had the last leftover pork chop, a couple of slices of wheat bread, and about a quart of orange juice. I got online, and....I started procrastinating again. I was looking at movie trailers. I meant to see Spiderman 3, but I waited too late, so now I'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD. I also watched all of the Transformers' movie trailers (about 15 to 20 minutes).

I finally got to my online lessons. I finished about 7:45pm. The lesson was about the differences between great teachers and ineffectual teachers. It was interesting. It made the almost 2 hours fly by. I decided to take a break from the computer, so I walked up the hill -- one of these days, I will take a photo so that you can see what the "hill" looks like. I am not exaggerating think of a 45 degree angle.

I returned about 8pm. Oh, and I checked my mailbox. My completion certificate for the technology class arrived. To be honest, I was not very impressed with the look of the certificate, but it was still very nice to see. Having a physical reward is nice, no matter how cheap it looks.

Well, having that certificate put me in a good mood. I was now motivated to do another online lesson. I printed out the objectives. I read the objectives. I had my notebook ready for taking notes. I did the pretest questions, and I started the video lesson....The guy talked about the same things he mentioned in Part 1 (there are five parts to this lesson [but 20 lessons in total, plus a midterm and final questions to answer]). The camera angle was different, his clothes were different, but he was saying the exact same things he had said in Part 1. I decided to speed up the video. I finished the 90 minutes presentation in about 30 minutes. Since I managed to finish the second lesson at about 8:45pm, I decided to do another lesson. And....

The guy was repeating himself again. But this time, he kept asking the audience to tell him if he was repeating himself. I thought it was a bit strange for a professor doing a workshop on "great teachers" kept repeating himself, and not knowing what he covered in class. Shouldn't the lecturer know. I can understand it happening at the beginning of the lecture, but for the entire 90 minutes to be basically repeated twice, just seemed a bit strange. I didn't see it as a total waste of time, repetition does have its benefits. And the third time was not totally repeated, but with a title like "Great Teachers" I was expecting a bit more.

Anyway, I finished about 10pm. I have two more 90 minute lessons for this online course. Then there is the midterm question section and the Final question section, then I will be finished this course. Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!
Well, it is time to end this. Since it is late, I am not sure what I will eat before calling it a night. Oh, a few things before I go.

Since I have been focused on my online course, I have not downloaded an IM (Instant Messenger) program. Just for those wondering why they haven't seen me online.

Harry Potter. While procrastinating online. I read the entire synopsis of the final book. Yep, the one that is in my hall closet that I was soo excited to received. I did an Internet search to find out what happened. And one website was very, very through. Now, the eagerness and excitement has dissipated. Now, I'll probably wait awhile before I read it. I don't think I've mentioned this, but I have a bad habit of jumping to the end of a book to find out how the story ends. I haven't done it with the last couple of books I've read, so I hope it is something I've outgrown (or am out growing).

Staples. In the blog entry from Thursday, I'd mentioned that I went to Staples, but I forgot to mention what I bought. Actually, I'm not sure at this moment of everything I bought, but I do remember a couple:

* 2 desk organizers (one for the bedroom and one for the living room. I decided that the card table in the bedroom will be my bill-paying personal workspace. The card table in the living room would be my schoolwork space table.
* PC TUTOR - Learn Windows Vista and Office I really want to integrate my computer into my lesson planning, assessment, and instruction.
* Typing Instructor Deluxe I was planning on getting Mavis Beacon (the one with the African-American lady on the cover), but this one has games that might motivate me to stick with improving my typing skills. Hopefully, I will be able to finish my Masters (starting in the Spring), I know I will be having pages of papers to type.

Well, I think that's it for now.


Post Date - Saturday, August 4, 2007 11:31pm