Six Degrees of Separation

Create a map of your social network. Blog about strengths and weaknesses.

Putting a map together of my social network was eye-opening! I couldn't believe how many people there are (and how many didn't get mentioned or were forgotten)! After about 10 minutes, I realized this would be a daunting task and decided to blog first. (image of social networking map coming soon).

Because of the easy access given to my generation, there is no shortage of contacts in one's social network, however the relevancy of contacts can be debated. I can take all those 'people' in my email address book(s), my cell phone address book, my old wedding announcement mailing list (go figure and actual address book) and make a three page hierarchy right there! But keep in mind the difference between a strong tie and a weak tie. I can't say it any better than what was given to my COMM 332G online class in our week's reading:

One important idea that comes from social network theory is related to strong ties and weak ties (Barabassi, 2002). We all have random and informal ties. For example, you may generate a weak tie when you get on a plane or a bus and sit down next to someone who you do not know and generate a conversation. You may find them to be interesting, and intelligent, and a good business connection for the future. Strong ties, on the other hand, are relational and geographically defined. These are your friends who you know from school, your family, or your business associates. You know them because you live by them, you work by them, and you see them and talk to them every day.

Imagine sitting at a table with everyone else in the world. It would be a large round table, and those sitting next to you would be your strong ties. Your mother and father, your brothers and sisters, your friends and associates, would all be at the table near you. They are the ones who are most likely to share your cultural values. Now imagine that you look across the table and see someone from a different geography, a different work environment, perhaps a different religion, or set of social values. If you know that person then they would be a weak tie. Weak ties are the people we meet when we step outside our cultural comfort zone.

The part for me that gets hard is the 'stepping out of the comfort zone'. I seem to do all right until I have to leave the norm or my homeostasis (so to speak). Not saying I don't do it-especially when the gain far out-weigh my nervousness, but it is a hard thing for me to do.

The question for our weekly discussion was: After reading about the different types of social support, discuss in a paragraph the strengths and weaknesses of your social network. This is what I reflected: "...we learn about four types of social networking: emotional, informational, instrumental, and motivational/spiritual and looking at this from a not-job related point-of-view interests me. As a social network is my group of friends and contacts its easy to find and pick-out people who fill each of the areas. A strength is that I have many people in many different places. It goes with the idea of six degrees of separation, in that if I don't know what I need (or who I want) someone I know does. A weakness for me is I have a hard time going out of my comfort zone to meet new people (or even meet people that my contacts have suggested)."

To sum up, it is a fascinating thing to actually write down one's social network-to actually see who you know (because it is so often said it is who you know not what you know).

ASL Final Project

For one of our projects in my ASL class, we were asked to tell an embarrassing date story. So here is a retelling of my first date with Tyler.

#3 Google Sites

How can I start this? I absolutely love Google and once I was shown how to create a Google website, there was no stopping me! I love to play around and create. I guess you could call it my 'scrap booking'-a hobby. They say a hobby is something you do in your spare time, something you do for fun. They also say you should lover your job and do something you love to do. So what's the difference? I have found a way to use my hobby in my career. I have two examples of using Google Sites as a teacher.

First off, I've seen first hand how to create a site from a teacher's point of view. As I continue my work-study with Doc Waters, we create and collaborate with Google Sites. She and I have created three separate sites, one for each course she teaches. It's been amazing to brainstorm and deliberate the many ways of creating a course website. I love the idea of everything living online. Nothing ever gets lost! When you use it in conjunction with Google Docs you can't go wrong. You create in Google Docs, email in Gmail, display on Google Sites, share in Blogger and the list keeps going. Now that I've learned all this and actually created a course website, doing it in my classroom seems obvious.

This brings us to my second example. http://sites.google.com/site/projectclassroom/
This is the site I've all ready created for my English class at my old high school, Pine View. Although the information will change and I'll have a much better grasp of what I'm doing once graduated, this is a great start and a solid base to build from.

Now my classroom has entered the home of my students. They are able to retrieve information and their parents have everything at their fingertips (I hate cliches but seeing as nothing else comes to me at the moment). Parents of students like my brother, can have all the information their child forgets to mention, all of the actual times and dates of school functions, the where's and when's of my classroom. My colleagues have access to my information when I'm not there. They are able to add, critique, and give insight. This also allows me to spend more time with family. The fact that I don't have to live in my classroom while completing lesson plans or grading. I can take it with me, not that I encourage taking work home with you, however if it means more time for children and vacation--well you be the one to decide--to each his own.

#2 Google Tools

Ha, right, blogging, right.

I absolutely love Google! Everything Google has to offer I love! I found out about Google Tools last semester and can't be separated from them now-it's kinda like an addiction-which scares me just a little, but I like it.

Google Calendar is my lifeline! I am an organizing freak! And G-Cal allows me to organize, color-coordinate, share, schedule, describe, view, alert, and embed! What else could I possibly need? In a classroom setting it is unmatched! Create a website, embed the calendar and BAM! Parents and students have all assignment, parent-teacher meetings, dances, club meetings, assemblies, you name anywhere!

I don't know how Google Docs was kept a secret from me but man oh man it ain't no more! Hallelujah, praise the Lord! This has been a lifesaver and could have been helpful a few years ago (like at birth). I can't even begin to describe the uses in a classroom-my fingers cannot type as fast as my brain is thinking of ideas. Group projects, different computer, different software, on vacation, no money for over-priced software, the list goes on!

iGoogle is nice because all of your Google Tools live in one place. Well they do as well if you're logged into your Gmail account, but this gives you a nice little "home" where everything can live-as well as being able to add your own gadgets for fun! Weather, quotes, dictionary, National Geographic pix, crosswords, how-to articles, etc.

As for the videos! Woohoo! Finally someone who can explain math to me! Well at least I can get started on my fraction homework. Mr. Duey rocks! Thanks so much for sharing-in a fun way, because math just isn't the brightest spot in my day. Videos are so essential for young learners. Lets face it, they'd rather watch TV than do anything! Even though it's about something they aren't interested in learning-they'll probably pay more attention than if they had to listen to their teacher drone on about it like everything else.

#1 Ideal Classroom

Let's put this blog post's setting as 'in a perfect world', then I won't have to say it every time I make a ridiculous statement about having the perfect class, with tons of money, parents that are involved and district that listens to teachers.

So in a perfect world I would be teaching 6th grade. I remember having such a fun time in 6th grade myself and I suppose it was because I was still young enough to enjoy the simple things life has to offer, but old enough to care about learning and growing. And I loved what we learned about that year. No, I couldn't tell you what was covered in math, but I know we did ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and of course Rome. We read some fun books and did a fun unit on ships.

My Mom teaches 7th grade and use to have the little theater as her classroom, for a long time I thought that would be a great place to teach, but the more I thought about it, it only worked for her because she was teaching one subject. In 6th grade you can't do that so I typical classroom would probably be best.

I would like individual desks because I love to re-arrange! I hate having the same-old, same-old. I like to mix it up and I think it's good for students to move around, meet new people and just view class from a new perspective.

As for the technology aspect, would it be nice to have it all? But of course that can't be. So I would like to have a projector and drop-down screen. Also I would love to have a desktop computer and a laptop, but a laptop will do. This way I can have my lesson plans, outlines and whatnot online and display for all to see. This will help to keep me organized and I can make changes as I need to without wasting paper. Everything can live online or on my computer-I really like that!

I like to have the class feel like a conversation, every one contributes everyone hears. I want the students to feel like there is open communication between each other and with me. This will be hard to achieve without the students keeping a respect for me and their classmates. However, if it ca be achieved it wil be one of the best things learned.

I want the students to walk away with a better understanding of the core curriculum of course, but also with a stronger sense of who they are. I want them to be ready for 7th grade academically as well as emotionally. I know it is a crutial growing time for students and life gets crazy. I want them to leave my class with a good taste in their mouths. I want school to be a positive experience because it is such an important thing in their futures. At the least, my class will be a good thing in their lives and hopefully they will remember that.

Fine Arts (Final)

Teachers across America feel the purse strings tighten as the government continues budget cuts in public schools. Ask any one of those teachers what the hardest subject being hit is and you'll probably hear fine arts.

The problem with subjects that fall into the fine arts category is they are hard to test, therefore hard to judge from an outsider’s (someone other than the immediate class) perspective. Also tying in with the No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2001 by President Bush, they cannot create a standardized test for most fine art subjects.

"I think it [the fine arts] is being cut because of a lack of vision and appreciation by education administrators who refuse to budget for it. However, my principal told me that our Fine Arts department is the heart and soul of the school and will be supported as long as she is the principal." said Gayle Workman, District Arts Committee Member and Choir and Music Appreciation teacher from Tonaquint Intermediate School.

Jenifer Andrus is a drama teacher at Lave Ridge Intermediate School, when asked what are the future benefits for students involved in fine arts, she answered with, "besides all of the many studies that show that students involved in the fine arts perform better in school, I really believe that the performing arts allow for a way for many students to find their niche and feel good about themselves. I have witnessed many students who have had trouble fitting in or finding success in school discover that drama is where they fit."

There are no fine art requirements for students at Lava Ridge Intermediate, but that doesn't make it less important. There are many opportunities for students to show off there talents. Andrus is also part of the Dramatic Arts Showcase for the intermediate and middle schools. This showcase will bring together students from the different schools and allow them to perform their readers' theater, poetry, humorous, and dramatic interpretations.

The more community involvement the better chances the fine art programs have at surviving in public schools. Donations equal survival for most districts.

(Word Count: 349)

...no Sam isn't a suspect

Saturday was a great adventure! My brother is attending BYU and early on in the semester auditioned for some murder-mystery-play-dinner type event. As we later learned it was a senior class project for a one of the theatre majors. Well being a freshman he didn't think much of it, but of course (oh I just love him), he made the cast as Sam! Woohoo! So between rehearsals for that and Men's Choir, he hasn't had much free time. Well the weekend of the murder mystery finally came and of course we went to support.

Well, now you have to understand my brother to appreciate in full the awkwardness of our situation at the play. This was one of those, the guests are involved along with the actors, plays. So if you bought tickets, you became an ambassador from X and then the actors were portraying people in Washington D.C. For example, the president, head of the CIA, vice president, et cetera, as well as their spouses. Well Riley bought the tickets for us, but we hadn't had a chance to see him before the show. So here we are with no tickets, no directions, no country, no idea that we would be participating, no anything!

We didn't really worry until we got there though, I guess you could say we weren't really thinking about it at all. We looked up the location on BYU's website, Google Mapped it and started off. So this lodge that the party was held at is in the middle of nowhere (at least at night, when you don't know where to go), and it seemed like we were driving forever (closer to 45 minutes). When we finally do arrive, we find out that we are ambassadors from New Zealand and that this is the State Ball. Can I just say EMBARRASSED! We (myself, husband, parents, grandparents, aunt and other brother) were in tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirts, and slippers. Not really the attire of travelling ambassadors attending the State Ball. Oops! Then we get our packet which we should have received at least 3 days prior to the event. This packet gave us the low down on who's who and what to expect.

So this left us a choice, stay low-key and keep a low profile, don't say much and sit in the back? Or-come up with a good story and speak with an accent? Obviously the accent with a good story will make-up all other errors! So that's what we did. We cooked up some story about how our plane was diverted in Perth and our luggage was lost, hence no formal attire and we said everything in our best New Zealand accent (just saying mate and crikey works the best). Thus we had a BLAST! And Ry and the cast did awesome! And dinner was fantastic! Great job to all those who helped and participated!