Ninjas and action figures

My on-boarding session this morning went smoothly, and I am all set to start my internship on January 3. As far as I know. Apparently FSU is still waiting to receive some paperwork from LCPS, but they told me to go ahead and start anyway on the 3rd.

Soon enough, I'll be a real official librarian. Like this? (Thanks for the librarian action figure, Heatherly! Shhing action!)



Or maybe I'll be a librarian more like this.... (Thanks for the amigurumi ninja, Jess! I love the tiny crocheted ninja throwing star!)

Gearing up for my final semester

I can't believe that in a couple short weeks I'll be starting my last semester of graduate school. This week I'll be getting everything in order to start my internship. I need to run to the doctor's office today and get my TB test read so that hopefully they'll say it's negative and give me a print-out that I can bring tomorrow morning to my "teachers-in-training" on-boarding session at the LCPS personnel office. Tomorrow morning I'll do that, be re-fingerprinted, get a new badge, and probably have to watch the hazardous waste spill clean-up video again.

I had hoped to be able to take the VCLA (Virginia Communication and Literacy Assessment) this week, but there were no open spots at the test center for this week or next. The earliest opening that I'd be able to go to was Saturday January 22, at 4:15 pm, so I signed up for it then. This is the last test I need to take (I think) in order to be eligible for a Virginia teaching license. That should give me more time to review for it, which I guess is nice.

I have a placement...

I was in meetings all day today, but when I finally had a chance to check my e-mail, I saw that I officially have an internship placement now. Starting in January, I'll be doing my school media internship at Farmwell Station Middle School!

I also just turned in my last paper of the semester! Woohoo! Time for a couple of weeks of relaxation before the internship insanity begins!

Next semester is going to be rough...

I just signed off from the spring internship orientation meeting. Wow. Next semester is going to be a ton of work. A TON! The internship involves not only going to the internship site 20 hours a week for 15 weeks, but also doing, if I remember correctly, 10 projects. In addition to the projects, we also need to do several video taped or remote observations and our internship coordinator/university supervisor also has to do a site visit at least once during the semester. Like she'll actually come to Virginia to observe me in-person at some point during the semester. Plus, evaluations that need to somehow be done jointly between the supervising media specialist and the university coordinator.

I thought I was done with classes once I turn in this semester's last paper. Ha! I'll have more assignments to turn in next semester than with two classes in a normal semester!

During the meeting, everyone introduced themselves, said where they were from, and where their internships are. I was, of course, the only one who still didn't know. Very frustrating, but I know FSU is following up on it (I was assured of that again this evening during the orientation, so I know I wasn't forgotten).

Winding down...

Class meetings for the semester were finished last week. I turned in the last two assignments for my digital media class (LIS5313) over the weekend. I have one more paper due on Thursday for my teaching class (LIS5524), and then I'll be done with classes.

Either tonight or tomorrow night (or both? There was an announcement about an informational meeting tonight and an e-mail about an orientation meeting tomorrow night...not sure if they are the same things or different things), I have a meeting/orientation session about the internship process. I still don't have an actual internship placement yet, which makes me nervous. The way things stood on Friday, FSU was going to follow-up with Loudoun County to see if there were any status updates, so I'm in a waiting mode. Hopefully, I'll hear something soon, especially since I'm supposed to start on Jan. 5! Still, it will be interesting to learn about what is involved with the internship.

It's very weird to me that once I turn in my last paper on Thursday that I'll be totally done with classes at FSU. In the first half of January, I'll be applying for graduation. Crazy!

Here's a screen capture from my the video I took for my final teaching project in LIS5524. The kids are blurred out for privacy.

Digital Media - Final Project

The final project for my digital media class this semester (LIS5313) was to create an "informative media art project for instructional use in an information organization." I chose to do a Prezi to instruct high school teachers on how they can use digital storytelling to meet state and national standards as well as engage their students.

Prezi can be a really frustrating technology to use at times, but I think the end results can be really engaging and fun to watch. There are parts I'm not happy with, but overall, I think this Prezi gets across the message that I want it to.

Here it is:

Digital Storytelling: Reach the Students, Meet the Standards 2 on Prezi

Yay!!

1) I got an A on my digital story project. Yay! I got a lot of good feedback on mine, and everyone really seemed to like it.

2) I taught my lesson on Boolean operators (three times) to a bunch of 8th grade students. Yay!

This is the Prezi I made to use in the lesson. It's nothing fancy, and I only used it for about 10 minutes out of the 60 minute lesson, but Prezi is fun!

Searching with Boolean Operators on Prezi

That first screen with the three columns was used as a warm-up before the lecture portion started. All the students had one playing card at their seat and I had them stand up based on what I described (red AND an even number/red AND an even number/red NOT an even number/etc.). The Prezi was projected on to a Promethean white board, so with that first screen up, I wrote the numbers of students who stood up on the white board in the appropriate column based on whether I said AND, OR, or NOT.

Digital Story - My Dad Runs

Those of you who enjoyed my Prezi should enjoy my digital story. The Prezi was just a concept/draft of the narration script for my digital story project. I just turned the completed digital story in, so here it is:

Prezi

This week's media lab assignment in my digital media class was to make a Prezi (sort of like PowerPoint, but non-linear) that is sort of a draft of the narration for my digital story project.

It was fun and frustrating to make this Prezi. I can think of many other ways I'd like to use it. I'm not totally happy with how this turned out, but it is my first time using anything like this:

My Dad Runs on Prezi

Busy, busy

This semester started off well, but I think we're getting to the point in the semester where everything goes insane and the work never ends. I should be writing the paper about my observation experience at Farmwell Station right now, but I'm taking a break from it.

Here are a couple examples of the kind of homework I've had in my Design and Production of Digital Media class (LIS 5313):

We were given a particular public domain image of President Obama and then assigned a magazine title. We then had to use photo editing software to create a parody magazine cover for the magazine we were assigned using that picture of President Obama. I was assigned Cosmopolitan.


We also used Audacity to pretend like we were creating a podcast.

This week, we were given a Creative Commons-licensed audio clip and told to find at least 10 Creative Commons-licensed images and use video editing software to combine the audio and images to create a short video. I don't like how the title page and credits came out, but I have time to learn how to do them better before completing my digital story assignment.

I should get back to working on my paper for LIS 5524 now.

Observation!

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Laura B.'s new school, Farmwell Station Middle School. I was there to observe one of the librarian's lessons today for my LIS5524 lesson observation assignment. She was teaching some ESL classes how to look through the library's Accelerated Reader (AR) lists, find books that are at their AR reading level, and then how to use the library's catalog to see if the library actually has those books, and if so where to locate them.

Both of the librarians there were really sweet and helpful, and the one I observed seemed totally open to not only having me come back to do my final teaching/video taping assignment for this class, but also seemed interested in me possibly doing my internship there next semester. If that can happen, it would work out very well in terms of me being able to continue working at AOL during the internship; Farmwell Station is only a few minutes down the road from AOL, so commuting between them would not waste a lot of time.

I'm still rather baffled by the internship application process though. I was first told that an e-mail I had from January saying I passed a background check was good enough. Now I'm being told I need to get a letter on official Loudoun County letterhead saying I passed the background check, so I sent off an e-mail to the nice woman at the Loudoun County personnel office who helped me set up my ESL placement in January if my background check is still on file, and if so, can she send me a letter on official Loudoun County letterhead saying I passed. And if that background check is not still on file, asking what I need to do in order to get a new background check to submit proof of to FSU.

FSU's distance program is absolutely wonderful, but because I'm here and they're there, and FSU's requirements are not necessarily the same as the Loudoun County requirements, and FSU's process is not necessarily Loudoun County's process, it's cause for much confusion, and I never know if I'm doing the right thing or not.

I should try to get some homework done now.

Almost graduated?

Well, I just applied for my graduation check (when the graduate coordinator checks if you are on track to graduate when you think you'll be graduating). I hope I'm not in for any (bad) surprises...

Am I stressed out yet?

It's the third week of classes, and I am both stressed out and not stressed out at the same time. Because of Monday being a holiday, I actually only have one class to attend this week, I did most of this week's homework over the weekend, and what homework I did have this week was fun and interesting, so in that way, this week is pretty calm and relaxing.

On the other hand, thinking about the upcoming assignments for my class about the instructional role of the information specialist is stressing me out. We have two major assignments that I just don't know how they're going to work.

The first one, due at the beginning of October, requires me to find a school librarian who will let me observe what the assignment alternately calls a "formal class" and an "instructional session." I e-mailed the librarians at Laura B.'s new school, so we'll see what they have to say, but until I have something scheduled, it's going to stress me out.

The big final assignment in the class will require me to find a school librarian who will actually let me teach a lesson in the school library and video tape it. At first I thought I could just teach anywhere (like for a home school group), and in the first class period the professor did say that worst case scenario we could get some friends together and video tape ourselves teaching them, but after looking at the school media assessment rubric for this assignment, school media students are assessed on whether or not we do this in a school library. I just can't picture a school librarian saying, "Sure, you can come teach a lesson in my library and video tape it. No problem."

Updated: Well, it looks like the two librarians at Farmwell Station are willing to work with me, so assuming they schedule any lessons that will work with my assignment between now and the end of September, I should have the first assignment taken care of at least.

The fall 2010 semester is here!

This week has been a busy week. I had the first meetings for both of my classes, and I completed my student internship application and turned it in.

My classes both look like they'll be both interesting and useful.

On Monday evenings I have LIS 5313 - Digital Media: Concepts and Production:

This course provides a conceptual and practical introduction to creating and using digital media resources to support learning and collaboration in information professions. Students will regularly engage in media analysis and media production activities that

1. incorporate digital image, sound, and video elements;
2. utilize web-based collaborative tools; and
3. apply knowledge of fair use, copyright, and copy left to multimedia.

On Thursday nights I have LIS 5524 - Instructional Role of the Information Specialist:

The instructional role of the media specialist and methods of participating effectively in curricular planning, implementation and evaluation.

Book Review: Handmade Beginnings

Classes start for the fall semester on Monday, and I've already got some homework reading to do before then. Still, I've managed to take some time to work on a craft project during the break between summer and fall classes.

I used a pattern and instructions from the book Handmade Beginnings: 24 Sewing Projects to Welcome Baby by Anna Maria Horner - "Swaddled Baby Love" from the Family Sewing chapter. The book itself has lovely photographs of the projects and some fun and cute looking ideas. This particular project (baby doll, doll diapers, and doll quilt) is meant to give to a child who will be getting a younger brother or sister soon to get them used to the idea. I decided to try my hand at making one for Isaac since he'll be getting a new brother around Christmas.

First, I'll say that although the instructions look simple and clear, and there are plenty of diagrams to help you out along the way, I re-did the doll twice, making sure I read the instructions correctly, and both times it didn't come out looking nearly as plump as the picture in the book. I traced out the pattern from the pattern sheets (which are extremely confusing to follow since patterns for several different projects are all on the same sheet and they overlap each other; you need to pay close attention to what lines you're tracing). The patterns themselves do not show the seam allowance, but the instructions clearly state that you should use a 1/2 inch seam allowance. After my first failed attempt at making the doll, I traced the pattern onto my fabric again, and this time I carefully measured out a 1/2 inch seam allowance and drew that onto the fabric as well with a water-soluble fabric marker, so that I would know I was sewing the correct width seam allowance. While my second attempt was neater than the first due to the drawn on sewing line, I still ended up with a baby doll with a big head and skinny arms and legs. I would think that maybe I was supposed to add the 1/2 inch seam allowance to the outside of the line I traced from the pattern, but other parts of the instructions seem to imply the line you trace from the pattern is your cutting line, not the sewing line. For instance, you are supposed to embroider the facial features after tracing the pattern with a water-soluble fabric marker but before cutting it out. The instructions about embroidering the face remind you not to embroider too close to the edge because you'll have a 1/2 inch seam allowance, and anything you stitch within 1/2 inch from the edge will not be seen.

I then cut the diapers out based on the pattern from the book. This part should have been the easiest, because you cut the diapers out of fleece and sew on velcro - no hemming or sewing other than adding the velcro. However, when I placed the diaper on the baby doll, the diapers were HUGE. Like up past the dolls armpits. This is another reason I feel like something is wrong with either the baby doll pattern or the instructions, and if I ever try to make this again, I'll add 1/2 inch seam allowance outside the pattern, not inside. I had to cut the diapers down in size to fit the baby I made.

The part I thought would be the hardest, the quilt, was actually the easiest. I didn't add the binding to the edges because by that point I was running out of patience and just wanted to finish, so I just sewed the front to the back. I think it still came out cute. The instructions for the quilt were actually pretty easy to follow and the diagrams along the way were very helpful.

Overall, I liked the idea of this particular project a lot, and the end product came out OK, but I think there are some issues with clarity in some of the instructions.

On to pictures of the end result.

The baby doll swaddled in the blanket:


There's a pocket on the back of the quilt that can be used to put the baby in and supposedly make it easier to swaddle:


The instructions also suggest storing the extra doll diapers in the back pocket:


Close-up of the baby doll (note that even cut down smaller the diaper is still very big):


Picture of the quilt in relation to the baby doll:


I really love the two different dinosaur fabrics I used; they're both so cute. I'm kind of surprised at how well the different front panels lined up because my strips were not cut or sewn evenly. Now I just need to think of something to do with the rest of the dinosaur fabric. It's so cute, I hate to waste the rest.

Lazy weekend

Since classes don't start back up again until the 23rd, I am enjoying the lack of homework. Final grades for the summer are completed, and once again, hard work has paid off.

All of my textbooks for the fall have arrived, so I'm mostly set for my classes to start up again. There may be some software I need to buy for one class, but I'm going to wait for the syllabus to come out before I buy anything just in case it has changed from the previous fall semester.

The official score report for my last FTCE came in the mail, so I was able to scan that into the computer and e-mail it to the internship coordinator. I need to write an essay for my internship application, and then I'll be done with that step.

Summer 2010 classes - done!

I just submitted my final assignment of the summer semester. I cut it a little close to the deadline for my liking (due at 11:55 pm, turned in approximately 9:30 pm), but it took longer to complete than I thought it would. On the one hand, I wish I had a few more days to work on it and polish it up some more, but on the other hand, I'm glad it's turned in, and I don't need to think about it anymore.

I ordered my textbooks for next semester (my last semester of classes!!), and two have already arrived.

Now for two lovely weeks with no homework to think about...

Last class of the summer

Last night I had my last class session of the summer. I've still got my final assignment to work on (due next Wednesday), but the summer session is essentially over. Fall classes begin August 23, and I believe that I actually have a class that day. I should probably look into what textbooks I need soon.

It's kind of strange to think that by next summer, I'll have graduated! Things are definitely gearing up for the end. This fall semester is my last semester of taking classes, and then in the spring semester I'll have my internship, and then I'll be done.

My application for the internship is due by August 27, and I just submitted the first part of it yesterday. I was able to use proof of my fingerprinting and background check from January to fulfill that requirement for my application. Apparently I just needed to prove I passed a fingerprinting and background check within the last five years to meet the FSU requirements. When it gets closer to the internship, I may have to go get fingerprinted and background checked again to meet the student teaching requirements for whatever county I end up in, but at least I have satisfied FSU's requirements.

Now, I need to write an essay for the second part of my internship application. Then, once my final "official" FTCE scores come in the mail, I need to scan and e-mail them to our internship coordinator.

Just for the heck of it, I checked out Fairfax County's instructional vacancies for the 2010-2011 school year. TJHSST has a librarian opening!!! Too bad it's not for the 2011-2012 school year, because I would totally apply.

FTCE - PEd

This has been a busy week in Orlando. I took my last FTCE test on Monday morning (the Professional Education exam), and thankfully, I found out right away (unofficially) that I passed.

I was worried about this particular exam because it covers a lot of education-related information and a lot of Florida-specific information. Since I've only taken 2.5 education classes, and I was not at all familiar with Florida education-related laws, I used the CliffsTestPrep book to study for this test. Since I passed on the first try, I can safely say that I learned everything I needed to know from the prep book! I am glad that I took an ESL class (TSL5325), a developmental psychology class (UoP PSYCH538), and most of a reading instruction class (RED5337) before taking this test; the things I learned in those classes came in handy for this test. However, I think I would have been OK even if I hadn't taken those classes because the prep book covered those topics fairly well and really hit on the important material.

It's coming to the end of the summer semester - my last assignment is due August 4, and then I'll be starting my last semester of classwork.

It's a good day!

I got e-mail from the FSU School of Library and Information Studies graduate coordinator that my UoP class was successfully added to my transcript as credit towards my degree. That's one less thing to worry about.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to log on to the FTCE site to see if my essay score was reported yet. I checked a few days ago, and the score wasn't there, and it still hasn't been 6 weeks yet, so that wasn't surprising. Well, today it says I passed! I assume the official score report will be showing up in the mail any day now.



Making school work (and normal work) a little challenging these past few days is the fact that I have a couple of stitches in my left hand. (Cutting with scissors...that's dangerous!)



If I spread my fingers too far apart while typing, it pulls and doesn't feel very good. The way I have to wrap my hand to keep the dressing on is also sort of constricting on my fingers, even if I don't wrap it too tightly.



Fortunately, I should get the stitches out on Friday.

The summer has slowed down a bit

I've still got a ton of homework for my remaining summer class, RED5337, but now that PSYCH538 is done, I've had some time to slow down and do non-school related things. Mostly, visiting with family over the 4th of July weekend and catching up on my "fun" reading (not that my school reading isn't fun too...).

My grade was finalized last week for my UoP class, and I requested my transcript sent over to FSU as soon as it was. Hopefully that class will be added to my FSU transcript some time this week. The School of Library and Information Studies graduate coordinator received the electronic copy of my transcript immediately, and she submitted it to get it added. She's not sure if they'll accept it, so I had a paper copy sent to her as well. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if the electronic copy is enough or not.

I've got my (hopefully) last FTCE test coming up a week from tomorrow. I started looking through the prep book for it this weekend, and so far it seems like a lot of common sense. At least I'll be getting this test done first thing in the morning, and I'll know if I passed it right away. Then I'll just still be waiting to learn if I passed the essay portion of my last exam.

PSYCH 538 - done!

Yesterday was the last official day for my University of Phoenix class, PSYCH 538 - Educational Psychology of Developing Learners. It will probably be next week before grades are finalized and I can send the transcript to FSU for transfer credit, but I'm basically done with that class. The funny thing is, two weeks ago FSU sent an e-mail out to school media students saying that chances are good they'll offer an online version of EDF 4210 (the equivalent class to what I just took at UoP) in the fall after all. Oh well. I've got the requirement completed, and I guess it doesn't really matter if I took it from FSU or UoP.

Now that this class is over, I'm hoping the rest of the summer will be a little less crazy and stressful. There's still plenty of homework in RED 5337, my FSU class, but maybe I'll have time to do some reading for fun and not spend my entire weekends (and week nights) on homework.

One down!

I got the official score report for my FTCE Educational Media Specialist PK-12 exam in the mail today, and I have officially passed. I knew I passed unofficially as soon as I finished the exam, but it's still nice to have the official confirmation. The scores came a week earlier than expected, so maybe I won't have to wait 6 weeks to get the results of my other test.

School has been keeping me very busy lately. A little too busy. I have a major paper to write this weekend for my University of Phoenix class as well as a reflective writing assignment for my FSU reading instruction class.

Now that I'm past the halfway point for the UoP class, I can say that I would never, ever choose to take another UoP class again unless I was paid a lot of money to do it. The group work has been... less than smooth, and I am not interested in repeating this "learning team" experience. Since UoP puts a lot of emphasis on learning teams, no more UoP for me. I have had some major group work in my FSU courses, and it has always ended up being a positive experience. I can't say the same thing about UoP. I keep telling myself there are only two more projects, and then I'll be done.

To be clear, I have nothing against working in teams. As I said, my group projects at FSU have all been extremely positive experiences. Part of the problem with the UoP learning team experience, at least for the online classes, is that you are given no practical collaborative tools to work with. You are discouraged from using the phone or e-mail and encouraged to do all of your team interactions on a discussion board so that the teacher/facilitator can monitor all interactions. You are not provided any means for real-time interaction - no chat room, no web conferencing, no nothing. When each project's time line is only a week, it's really inefficient to try to hold a conversation and make timely decisions on a discussion board, especially when some team members only log in to check the team board every other day. The bigger part of the problem for me was that I ended up in a learning team that just did not get along and too many team members were unwilling to discuss the issues or make compromises.

FTCE - General Knowledge

I'm back in Orlando this weekend for all four parts of the FTCE General Knowledge exam (essay, English language skills, reading comprehension, and math). When you register, they tell you the exam will take 4.5 hours, but I think that accounts for breaks. I finished a little while ago, and I was done in about 3.25 hours; I didn't take any breaks between sections, and the only section I used the whole time for was the essay.

The good news is, I know I passed English language skills, reading comprehension, and math. The bad news is, I won't know whether or not I passed the essay portion for approximately 6 weeks! I wish I was more confident about my essay, but I ran out of time for it, and although I think I started out with a fairly strong beginning, the second half was rushed and not exactly what I would have liked it to be. So, we'll see in 6 weeks if it was good enough to at least pass. I hope so.

I used the CliffsTestPrep FTCE: General Knowledge prep book to review for this exam, and I think it gave a pretty accurate picture of the types of questions that were on the exam in each part. I like that it has both a pre-test, so you can decide which areas you need to focus on, and two full practice tests. I also really like that the answers are explained, so if you get one wrong, you're not stranded trying to figure out why.

FTCE - PK-12 Educational Media Specialist

I took the FTCE PK-12 Educational Media Specialist exam yesterday and passed, thank goodness. At FSU, they recommend you take this exam after completing LIS5512- School Collection Development and Management. I just finished that class a couple weeks ago, so that's why I chose to take the test now. I agree that I learned a lot of good information in LIS5512 that was covered on the test, but a lot of my other classes helped too. LIS5564 and LIS5565 gave me foundations in children's and young adult literature and some of the selection aids that librarians use. LIS5408 gave me knowledge of strategic plans, short-range plans, and long-range plans. LIS5703 gave me the basics of bibliographic records. Plus, there were things on the test that weren't covered in any of my classes.

One exam down, two to go!

My "Classroom"

Lindsey asked me once to put a picture on this blog of me "attending class," so here's me attending class tonight. I'm listening to the professor lecture about the historical research on reading instruction.


Ignore the mess on the floor and desk. You can see my Elluminate classroom on my computer screen, and in order for the voice component to work, we have to use microphones and headsets. If you use a microphone and your computer's speakers, you end up picking up an echo.

First day of PSYCH538

My University of Phoenix class "began" today which basically just means that when I log in to the UoP eCampus website, the class shows up under my "Current Classes" tab instead of "Upcoming Classes," and the professor has posted the syllabus and course schedule.

Being a six-week course, they don't waste any time. My first assignment is due on Saturday, and my first paper due on Monday.

The course weeks begin on Tuesdays and end on Mondays. From what I can tell, the course discussion board (or forum as it is called at UoP) is used extensively - much more than in my FSU courses, and in a much stricter manner. I've had courses which required you to post responses to a certain number of threads or questions by mid-week and then post a certain number of replies by the end of the week, but for this class, our entire class participation grade requires us to post to the classroom's "Main Forum" with two substantive posts on each of four days during the course week. Substantive is defined differently in different classes apparently, but in this class, it means between 200 and 300 words. From what I can tell, that means 8 discussion board posts a week. Two of those posts will be responses to certain discussion questions which are due on certain days of the week. Except for this first week when the discussion questions are due on Thursday and Friday, they will generally be due on Wednesdays and Fridays.

We will also be assigned to "Learning Teams," which I can't say I'm looking forward to at all. According to the syllabus, 30% of our grades are from group assignments, with the first group assignment being due next week! We don't even have our teams assigned yet. I've been pretty lucky with my groups at FSU, so I'm hoping my luck holds out and I end up with good group members at UoP as well.

The next six weeks would be busy even if this was the only class I was taking, but taking this class along with an FSU class, and trying to study for the Florida Teacher Certification Exams at the same time is going to be rough.

Reading Instruction - Summer classes begin

The summer semester officially began for me yesterday. I had my first session of a class that is known by two different names and has two different course numbers. For some, it is LIS5441 - Leadership in Reading. For others, it is RED5337 - Supervision and Instruction in Secondary School Reading. It's the same class meeting at the same time with the same professor - there were just two ways to register for it.

Here are the course descriptions (again - even though it's the same class, depending on whether you registered for RED5337 or LIS5441 you got different descriptions):

RED5337:

Application of the reading process to the secondary school curriculum. Diagnostic procedures and instructional strategies useful in developing school reading programs.

LIS5441:

This course focuses on the knowledge and skills necessary for informational professionals to provide collaborative leadership in reading across the K-12 spectrum. Special emphasis is placed on how reading for achievement and reading motivation can successfully be reconciled as essential components of information literacy.

It sounds like it will be an interesting class, and the professor sounds very knowledgeable about the topic. This is only her second semester teaching a class for FSU (she taught this class last summer too), but she has 25 years teaching/school library experience in elementary, middle, and high school and is currently working as a middle school librarian.

The work load doesn't seem like it will be too intense for this class, which is good, since after looking at just the first week's worth of assignments for my UoP PSYCH538 class, I'm already stressed out - already a paper due the first week. I hope that once the class officially "starts" next week, all of the assignments will be posted rather than just the first week's, so I can space the work out as much as possible.

I hope both of these summer classes will help prepare me for the third FTCE test I need to take, Professional Education, because I have never learned a lot of the content listed in the exam prep book I have for that test.

Educational Psychology - Developing Learners

When I started the school media track at FSU, there were two required education classes that were not available online through FSU, but there were equivalents that could be taken through University of Phoenix online that were pre-approved for transfer credit. I assumed that I would take these two courses one summer and be done with it.

Then, FSU decided they would figure a way to offer these two education classes online after all. Last summer they started offering a reading instruction class through the library science department that counted. I am registered for that class this summer. They also have plans to offer the educational psychology class that is needed online, but as of fall 2010, it's still not on the schedule. But, since there are plans for it, they said they didn't want to accept transfer credit anymore. I will hopefully do my internship in spring 2011, so I kind of need to take the class either this summer or this fall. So, I asked for special permission to take the UoP class and transfer it - they said yes. I am now signed up for the last education class I need through University of Phoenix - it starts 5/18 and is six weeks long.

I'm kind of nervous how it's going to work taking a 6-week highly compressed course at the same time as a more normal paced 13 week course, but at least the UoP course should be done before final project/paper crazy time in the other course.

Spring is over, bring on Summer

The final grades for the spring semester are available online today, so the spring 2010 semester is officially over!

In my week off between spring and summer semesters, I got out my Florida Teacher Certification Exam (FTCE) prep books (thanks, Lindsey!) and began looking through them. I need to take (and pass) three exams (General Knowledge, Professional Education, and Educational Media Specialist) this summer in order to apply for a spring 2011 internship.

One of the courses I just finished, LIS5512 - Collection Development in a School Media Center, supposedly prepared me for the Educational Media Specialist exam, so that's the one I'm planning to take first. I registered to take the exam on Friday, 5/28, so I've only got a couple of weeks to finish studying. I need to get at least a 70% on it to pass. That's like a D+ or a C, and I got an A in the class, so I hope that means I'll have no problems passing. That's assuming the content of the class is what's on the test though, and I haven't gotten very far in the exam prep book yet.

I also registered for all four parts of the General Knowledge exam for Saturday, June 12. I do need to review for it, but I'm not as worried about this exam, as I am about the other two. It does have an essay though, and the essay portion takes longer to be scored than the rest of the exams, so I figured I should get this one out of the way early in the summer to be safe. This exam has four parts: Essay, Reading, English Language Skills, and Math. Each part has a different required percentage to pass. For Reading, you only need 65%, English Language Skills - 73%, and Math, only 58% (and yet for some reason this is the longest section at 100 minutes). For the essay, you need 6 out of 12 points, which is basically a 50%.

Although I'm not registered for it yet, the Professional Education exam requires 73% to pass.

Next week the summer semester begins. Tuition is paid, books are bought, and I'm ready to start.

Spring 2010 - done!

I turned in my last assignment for grading on Saturday, and this morning, I turned in my last two pieces of work to my Chalk & Wire portfolio for assessment. I am officially done turning things in for the semester.

My Chalk & Wire portfolio is a requirement for the "teacher preparation" portion of my degree; the College of Education requires it. Certain assignments in my classes demonstrate that we, as students in the FSU teacher preparation program, have the skills and knowledge to meet Florida teacher certification requirements and the classes we take meet the requirements of the state to be part of a "state-approved" teacher preparation program. So, not every assignment we do for every class has to be also sent to Chalk & Wire, but some do. In the past I just turned assignments in at the same time for a grade in Blackboard and to Chalk & Wire, but in my collection development class this semester, the professor wanted us to wait until our assignments were graded for class before submitting them to Chalk & Wire in case we wanted to revise first. Our last assignments were graded as of this morning, so I was finally able to submit my last two "artifacts" to Chalk & Wire.

It feels good to be done. This semester just really dragged for some reason; I think because for one class there were no class meetings at all and in the other there were only 4 class meetings the entire semester.

Spring 2010 - progress

LIS5512:

• Submit final assignment and peer evaluation to Chalk & Wire - waiting on grades
  
• Final Exam - done!
  

TSL5325

• Clean up reflection journal and submit to Chalk & Wire - done
• Finish revising SIOP lesson plan, submit as an assignment and to Chalk & Wire - done
• Scholarly article reviews (3) - due 4/24
  
• Last week's discussion board postings
  

Spring 2010 winding down

Last night was the last (unofficial) meeting of my LIS5512 class. I also turned in the last "assignment" for that class - an evaluation of a collection development policy of a local school and a peer evaluation of one of my classmate's evaluations. Now all that I have left for it is the final exam, which is really a bunch of small essays and writings. It's due next Wednesday, and I haven't started yet.

In my TSL5325 class, I had my last field visit to Rachel Carson yesterday as well. One of the girls in the class gave me the paper crane she made (they had just read Sadako and there were instructions for origami cranes in it), and when the students heard it was my last day, they all sounded sad. All I need to do for that class is submit my reflection journal to my Chalk & Wire portfolio, finish revising my lesson plan and submit it as an assignment and to Chalk & Wire (due Sunday at midnight), and then do my scholarly article reviews (3 articles) and turn those in. Those are due 4/24, so this is my last weekend of the semester to get homework done. That's kind of crazy.

Wicked Lovely - free e-book

I mentioned several posts ago that Melissa Marr was releasing a free short story set in her Wicked Lovely universe as a 2-part e-book. As of yesterday, the first novel in that series, Wicked Lovely, is also being offered as a free e-book. You can currently get both parts of the "Stopping Time" short story and the free version of Wicked Lovely from the Harper Teen Melissa Marr site as well as the Amazon Kindle store and the B&N e-book store.

If you don't have a Kindle or a nook, you can read the version from the Harper Teen site on your computer. First you'll need to download and install Adobe Digital Editions BEFORE downloading the e-books from the Harper Teen site. As part of the Adobe Digital Editions install, you'll need to create an Adobe ID and password unless you already have one. Once you have ADE installed and authorized with a valid Adobe ID and password, THEN you can download Wicked Lovely and "Stopping Time" from the Harper Teen site; as with normal downloads, it will ask you if you want to save to your computer or open with - Adobe Digital Editions. You want to choose the option to open it in Adobe Digital Editions because this lets you authorize and read the book. You read it right in Adobe Digital Editions.

Here's the book trailer for it:

Book Review: Magic Under Glass

This morning, I read Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore, and I loved it. It's YA fantasy, and drew me in right away. It's the story of Nimira, a girl who ran away from home, sailed across the sea to another land in the hopes of finding her fortune. It's also the story of a fairy prince, Erris, enchanted into the body of an automaton. With hints of Jane Eyre, the story really pulled me along to find out what happened next to the characters. Would Nimira be able to find a way to help Erris? Would they be discovered by those who would stop them? The ending is obviously just the beginning of their story, so in that way it's a frustrating ending, but at the same time, it hints at more to come, so I guess I'll just have to wait for the sequel to find out more!

Here's the official book trailer:



There was some controversy about the cover of this book before it even came out. Nimira, although from a fictional country that is not firmly based on any real one, is described as having brown skin, but the original cover of the book depicted a girl with light skin, because supposedly some people feel that people of color on book covers don't sell books. You can see the original cover here. Fortunately, the publishers listened to what people had to say and designed a new cover which is truer to the author's vision of Nimira, and you can see it on the author's site here.

Semester update and Book Review

There's basically a month left in the semester, and as of this week, I'm done "attending" class. There's one more optional class meeting for my collection development class in a couple weeks to wrap things up, but all the mandatory class meetings (all three of them for the semester), are now done.

The last big projects for both of my classes are starting to come due in the next couple of weeks, and I need to finish up my hours for my ESL field experience in the next couple of weeks as well. I'll just say that I'm really struggling in my ESL class because there has been essentially no human interaction the entire semester. The subject matter is interesting and important, and I'm really enjoying my field work for the class, but the coursework is very time-consuming, the instructions aren't always clear, sometimes there are conflicting instructions in various places on the course website, and the professor is not always easy to get answers from.

Enough about that, on to the book review! I recently won a contest on the blog of the author Jessica Day George for an advance reading copy of her latest book, Princess of Glass, a sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball, which I reviewed on this blog last year. The author wanted to get 50 amazon reviews of Princess of the Midnight Ball before Princess of Glass was released, so she offered a contest on her blog. If you posted an amazon review of Princess of the Midnight Ball on amazon and then left a comment on her blog with your amazon reviewer name, you got entered in a drawing for an ARC of Princess of Glass. I already posted an amazon review based on the review I did in this blog, so I entered, got lucky, and won one of the copies!

Here's what I got in the mail - it's an uncorrected advance proof of the book, also known as an ARC, and it's autographed inside by the author! Uncorrected proofs are in paperback form, probably contain mistakes, and basically aren't polished or finalized yet. I definitely found some typos and mistakes as I read along, but they didn't distract from the fun story.




Princess of the Midnight Ball, as I mentioned in my blog post about it, is a retelling of the twelve dancing princesses and is the story of Princess Rose. This sequel is the story of one of Rose's younger sisters, Princess Poppy, and it's a retelling of Cinderella, but with a twist. Although I found some of the chapter changes confusing and abrupt, I really enjoyed the book a lot. Instead of a kindly fairy godmother, the godmother in this story is a black magician called the Corley, and she has an ulterior motive when she helps young Eleanora go to the balls to win the heart of a prince. Princess Poppy, so recently released from a curse of dark magic in the previous book, recognizes something isn't right, and with the help of her friends, works to undo the damage that the Corley has caused.

Although I think I liked Galen from Princess of the Midnight Ball better than Prince Christian in this book, Princess Poppy is definitely my kind of princess. She's spunky, beats everyone at cards, swears like a soldier (her brothers-in-law are to thank for that), and yet still carries herself like a princess.

I also really enjoyed the way the glass slippers were worked into the story. They are a recognizable part of the tale, and yet with a new twist that works with the darker tone of the story. Every night before each ball, the Corley's mute servants bathe and dress Eleanora in beautiful gowns and jewels, and then the Corley herself melts and molds magical glass directly on to her feet. It causes her great pain, and if she doesn't get back to the Corley before midnight, her feet start turning into glass. The Corley also puts an enchantment on Eleanora so that every man, but especially Prince Christian, will be crazy about her.

Unfortunately for the Corley, Prince Christian is falling in love with Poppy despite the love spell enchantment to force him to fall in love with Eleanora, and Eleanora is actually in love with someone else as well. The important thing in books of this kind is that Poppy and Eleanora both get their happily ever afters in the end.

As with Princess of the Midnight Ball, Princess of Glass also includes a knitting pattern at the end. Throughout the story, Princess Poppy knits magical protective bracelets for all of her friends in the hopes that they will help them see through the Corley's enchantments; the pattern in the back shows you how to make Poppy's anti-love spell bracelets.

I really enjoyed the book, and I will definitely buy a "finished" copy when the book comes out in a few months. I'll keep it right next to this ARC. I hope Jessica Day George decides to write about this family. There are still 10 more sisters and a bunch more fairy tales to take inspiration from!

Free YA contemporary fantasy e-books

Now that I have an e-book reader, I have been on the lookout for good e-book deals.

In honor the upcoming release of Melissa Marr's newest YA release on 4/20, there are a few related free e-book releases.

You can already download part 1 of a new story ("Stopping Time") set in the same world as her upcoming book, and tomorrow you'll be able to download part 2. I'm not sure if these two parts make up a short story or a novella, but it's not a full-length novel from my understanding.

It looks like on 4/6, you'll also be able to download the first book in the series, Wicked Lovely, with some additional bonus content. The link above lets you download directly from the HarperTeen website, but you can also download from B&N website or amazon directly to either your nook or Kindle. The "Stopping Time" downloads show up as free in both places. I assume that on 4/6, amazon and B&N will show Wicked Lovely as free, even though currently it costs approx. $5.50.

I believe these are only going to be free for a limited time - probably only until Radiant Shadows release on 4/20 or shortly after. I've read the first three books in the series, and definitely those who enjoy darker, contemporary urban fantasy will probably enjoy these. They are very popular YA books right now and appeal to the same teens that might like Twilight, although a bit darker. I liked these better than Twilight, but honestly, I kind of hated Twilight. (Don't tell any teenagers this or I will probably lose any credibility as a cool librarian.)

For those without e-book readers, both amazon and B&N have Kindle/nook apps you can download onto your computer to let you read their e-books on the computer as well.

Book Review: Sewing Tiny Toys - Creating Your Own Bean Bag and Plush Toys

I got the book Sewing Tiny Toys by Carolyn Vosburg Hall as a gift from a friend several years ago, but I never got a chance to put it to use until recently.

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty good book, although definitely for someone with at least medium sewing skills. What I like about the book is that the patterns are all full size, so you just need to trace them out or photocopy them at regular size. The instructions are somewhat complicated, but fortunately there are photographs next to every step to help you along. Still, even with the photographs, I was unable to figure out how to do certain steps on one of the patterns I tried, so I sort of made it up as I went along. There were also times when I didn't understand why the author chose the order of steps she did. For instance why did she have you wait until assembly and stuffing was complete before having you embroider the facial details? It seems like it would be easier to do that before stuffing, and even before completing assembly. Part of the reason I say these patterns require at least medium sewing skills is because there are a lot of pattern pieces for most of the stuffed toys in the book, assembly is a little bit complicated, and the size of the toys add an extra challenge because they are so small. I sewed both of the stuffed toys below completely by hand.

Now, on to the pictures! In honor of March, which supposedly comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, I give you the lion and the lamb stuffed toys from Sewing Tiny Toys! (I hope Caelan enjoys the lion!)

The lion stuffed toy. He's made out of felt, and has articulated legs made with button joints. He's sitting on this year's Caldecott Medal winner, The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney.

The lamb stuffed toy. Not the best picture, but you can see it came out pretty cute. The sherpa fabric I used for the fleece was very stretchy, and unfortunately, I don't think this came out sturdy enough to be an actual toy because the stretchiness of the fabric made it shred as I sewed, so too much handling may make the seams come apart completely. Still, that's not the pattern's fault!

Overall, despite the challenges, I still think it's a pretty good book, and there are more cute patterns in it I want to try.

E-books

I decided to use part of my tax return this year to buy an e-book reader. After much research, I decided on the Barnes & Noble nook. Aside from the "E ink" technology that comes on most e-book readers these days, I wanted to be able to read PDF files for school (many of the articles we read are PDF) as well as read books for fun. I also like that the nook lets you change the battery and expand the storage with a memory card.

My nook arrived yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to play with it because it had to fully charge before first use. Because I don't have wireless internet at home, I hooked it up to my computer with the USB cable it came with, downloaded the latest software for it, and then used an open source e-book management software called calibre to load a few books onto it. Calibre allows you to convert e-books in various formats to many other file formats, and lets you optimize the output file for your specific e-reader device. I tried converting a few different files; I converted a free html e-book of short stories to EPUB format, a couple PDF files to EPUB format (the nook handles PDF, I just wanted to see if the conversion did anything), and even EPUB to EPUB, just to take out spaces between paragraphs. You can even use it to adjust margins and other formatting things on files to make them look best on whatever e-reader you have. So far, it seems like a pretty useful e-book manager.

I don't know how the wireless purchase of books from Barnes & Noble works, but I have 6 books on here, 5 free (mostly classics from Project Gutenberg and the short stories I mentioned) and one purchased from Book View Cafe. I also downloaded the Alice in Wonderland free screen saver from Barnes & Noble and put it on my nook.

After playing with it for a little while, I decided to make a protective cover for it. I bought a silicone skin for it and have some protective screen covers on the way, but I wanted something to protect it if I put it in my librarian bag or purse.

Here's what the nook likes like; I have the test guide for the Florida Teacher Certification Exam Educational Media Specialist PK-12 loaded on it.



And here's what my cover looks like. It's a different fabric, but sort of matches the fabrics I used to make my librarian bag. I used the thick cardboard from inside an old 3-ring binder to make the front and back cover hard, covered both in fleece for padding, then sewed the outside cover.


I haven't read more than a few pages on it, but I think it's going to work out well once I adjust to how the page turn makes the screen flash.

Free History DVD to every school in the U.S.

This offer got mentioned on one of the library listservs I am a member of. The History Channel has an upcoming miniseries called "America The Story of US." They are offering a copy on DVD free to every school in the U.S. - the school principal just needs to fill out this online form. It is copyright cleared for fair use in the classroom. It hasn't aired yet, so I have no idea of it's a good miniseries or not, but it seems like a very generous offer on the part of The History Channel. The high school librarians on the listserv seem excited about it.

Know any video-game-loving teens?

Tor books has 200 free advance review copies of Cory Doctorow's upcoming YA novel, FOR THE WIN, available to young adults who love video games (19 years old or younger) and want to review the book on their blog or in their school newspaper. You can find the details here. So if any of you know someone who might be interested, pass it on! Too bad Michael is too old (and doesn't have a blog and would never write for his school paper), because a few years ago, he would have been perfect :)

This offer is in honor of the American Library Association's Teen Tech Week, which is this week.

On a side note, Cory Doctorow's other young adult novel, Little Brother, is available as a legal, free e-book download from his website: Little Brother e-book. We read this book in my Info. Needs of Young Adults class last semester; it's quite a discussion starter.

Rapunzel paper dolls

It's spring break this week, so I have a little something fun to post. One of my favorite authors, Shannon Hale, co-wrote two graphic novels with her husband, Dean Hale: Rapunzel's Revenge (a retelling of Rapunzel set in a fantasy Wild West) and Calamity Jack (sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge and a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk). They are illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation to Shannon and Dean).

When the first book came out, Nathan Hale drew some Rapunzel paper dolls that you can find and print out from here: original Rapunzel's Revenge paper dolls. Now that the second book just came out, he made some new paper dolls to print, color, and play with:

Calamity Jack paper doll #1 (Rapunzel paper doll and one outfit)
Calamity Jack paper doll #2 (additional clothes for Rapunzel)
Calamity Jack paper doll #3 (Jack paper doll and one outfit)
Calamity Jack paper doll #4 (additional clothes for Jack)

Note: All book links in this blog link to the book on WorldCat, "The World's Largest Library Catalog," so you can see what local libraries near you might have it in their collection.

Strange semester

This semester is turning out to just feel very strange. I don't feel like I'm really in school because I have "attended class" exactly two times since the beginning of January. Now that I'm at the half-way point of the semester, I can safely say that I much prefer when my classes meet weekly in Elluminate, or even just meet weekly in a chat room.

Now that the snow has calmed down (and hopefully I'm not jinxing anything by saying that), I have been able to actually go to my field placements for my ESL class. Last week I went to observe four different ESL classes at Park View High School (ESL Social Studies 1, Advanced ELL, ESL Social Studies 2, and ESL Math), and it was really great to see what I'm reading about in my textbooks put into practice in different classrooms. The teachers were all really nice, were more than happy to provide me with copies of what the students were working on, and answered all of my questions.

I also really got to start working one-on-one with an ESL student at Rachel Carson Middle School this week, and although I was very nervous before I started, I think it's going to be good. I went on Monday and Wednesday mornings this past week, and already I can see that the student I am working with remembered one of the things I taught him about writing numbers out as words (putting the hyphen between the first part and second part once you get past twenty). I'm sure I won't be the most effective tutor possible, but it's a learning experience for me as well as him.

Book Review: The Cute Book

I recently got my hands on The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo (same author as the make cute baby stuff book). This book focuses entirely on tiny felt stuffed animals called "felt mascots." The skill level needed is pretty basic - basic embroidery stitches and hand sewing is all you need to do. The only materials needed for almost all of the patterns include: different colors of felt, embroidery floss, a needle, and a tiny bit of stuffing as well as scissors to cut out the pieces.

Although the actual patterns in the book are just for the little felt mascots, the back few pages have ideas for what you can do with them. For instance, you can put them on barrettes, make them into appliques, put them on key chains, increase the pattern size on a copier to make a larger stuffed animal, etc.

I found some of the instructions, especially if they show you how to make two different variations of the same mascot, a little confusing, but for the most part the instructions were very easy to follow, and they include drawings to illustrate each step in the process.

I made the white rabbit mascot, and then decided to make the head of another one into a hairbow (for Lila).


They have sample pages posted on the publisher's website if you want to take a look. The sample pages actually include the pattern I used to make the white rabbit. People have commented on that page as well, including pictures of their own creations from the book.

Book Review: The Thirteenth Princess and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

This semester I have managed to squeeze in a bit more pleasure reading than in past semesters, and I recently read two books that I would add to my bibliography on modern fairy tales for children aged 9-12 if I were to do the project today. If I ever actually get around to making a portfolio website, I will add them to the list of books I created for that project.

The first is called Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. It is one of this year's Newbery Honor books and is the story of Minli, a young girl who sets off to change her family's fortune by seeking out the the Old Man of the Moon. I really struggled to find multicultural books to include in my fairy tale bibliography, but this book would have been perfect. It intersperses retellings of Chinese folktales with Minli's story. It also includes some lovely illustrations that you can get a taste of in the book trailer:



The second is called The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler. It's a retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" from the point of view of a thirteenth sister, Zita. Zita was basically disowned by her father at birth because he blamed her for the death of her mother, so she grew up as a servant in the palace although all of the servants knew her to be a princess. When she finds out that the twelve princesses are really her sisters, she and the princesses become very close, until one day they start becoming very ill - tired and weak. It's up to Zita, with the help of her friends (including an old witch and a handsome soldier), to figure out the mystery of the illness and save her sisters before it's too late! It's a really cute book, definitely geared more towards the 9-12 age range than the YA audience. There's a book trailer for it as well, but it's kind of cheesy. At the end you can see the pretty book cover though!

School Library News

1) I did make it to Rachel Carson for the first time two weeks ago and observed the first period ESL class there. Because of the snow, I haven't been back yet, but hopefully this week I'll be able to get back on schedule.

2) Apparently the term school librarian and school library are officially "in" again. No more school media specialist and school media center. This is nice because when people ask me what I'm going to school for, I always tell them to be a school librarian; most people I talk to have no clue what a school media specialist is.

3) The President's proposed FY2011 budget does not include any specific funds for school libraries. I've been reading various discussions of the topic, and it's hard to tell what exactly this means for school libraries, but it doesn't sound good. For instance, The Unquiet Librarian makes it sound pretty bad. The American Association of School Libraries (AASL) recommends writing to representatives and senators to ask them to reject the proposed budget and to include school libraries in the increased education funds and Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program. I don't know if it will help, but I wrote to my senators already.

Edited to Add:

If anyone is interested in writing to their senators or representatives, AASL posted a sample letter you can use as a basis: http://connect.ala.org/files/12772/letter_to_the_editor_sample_for_president_s_budget_20785.pdf

Putting What I've Learned to Use

For my class LIS 5512, School Library Collection Development and Management, our next assignment involves getting familiar with some professional resources (e-mail listservs, blogs, and discussion groups) for school library media specialists. I decided to join LM_NET listserv as one of the resources I plan to evaluate for this assignment.

It makes me feel good that even though I only joined a couple days ago, I've already been able to contribute. One person posted a question asking for recommendations for books that might appeal to teenage male reluctant readers who like The Black Book series by Jonah Black and were looking for more books like it. Just last semester (was it last semester?) I wrote a paper about teenage male sexuality in young adult fiction, I had a list of similar books I could share with the original poster of the question.

Another person posted asking about sources for free-to-use (no copyright problems and no cost) photographs that students can use in a particular school assignment. Last summer in my Reference Services class I did a project on Flickr, which has two features that could be helpful to the orginal poster's students (The Commons - a collection of images from cultural institutions, like the Library of Congress and Smithsonian, with no known copyright restrictions, and the advanced search feature that allows you to search the regular photographs on Flickr for Creative Commons-licensed photographs). So I responded to that person with the information I had about how she could use Flickr to help the students find photographs they could use in their projects.

It's nice to see what I'm learning in school really does have use out in the real world of working school library media specialists.

Book Review: Baby Stuff

I recently purchased the book Let's Make Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo!: Baby Stuff on impulse from Michael's. It was on an end cap and the cute cover called to me. The inside pictures sold me on it.

I made my first project from it, and I think I'll be making many more projects from this book. It seems like it has some really good projects for beginner sewers who have the basics down. There's a little bit of instruction at the beginning that explains how to use a copy machine to enlarge the patterns and how to do the basic embroidery stitches used in the patterns.

The pattern I made was for the "Flimsy Bunny" towel. There is a similar "Flopsy Bear" one in the book as well. The book says, "We can flop around, just like a towel. We wipe away drool and sweat, and even clean off hands! Just leave it to us!" It also says that if you put stuffing inside before closing it up, Flimsy Bunny and Flopsy Bear can be stuffed animals too.

I didn't enlarge the pattern, because the only terry cloth I had to work with were cheap washcloths. I think this pattern would definitely work better with the very thin terrycloth used in baby towels and washcloths, but I couldn't find any of that. Even using the thicker, less nice terrycloth, I still think it came out really cute and will serve its purpose. The instructions also said to use felt to make the eyes, but I just satin stitched them on because I had no black felt either.

It was a very quick project. I started when I got home from work today around 5 pm, and I was done about 40 minutes later. This looked like perhaps the simplest project in the book, but most of the others didn't look very time consuming either, and that's what I really like about this book; the output is very cute for a reasonable time commitment.

And now for the final result (the face is wet to get rid of the fabric marker I used to mark the eyes, nose, and mouth, so if you see a weird shadow on the face, that's why):



This picture has my hand in it, so you can see the scale of it. The recommended size is 140% larger than the size I made. I basically just traced the pattern directly from the book.



You can see some sample pages at the publisher's website.

Placement update

I received the volunteer forms back from Rachel Carson yesterday, signed by the appropriate parties, so today, I made the trek to Falls Church to drop them off at the Fairfax County Public Schools HR department. There, I filled out more background check forms, showed my photo ID, got fingerprinted again, and got a volunteer badge. It took about an hour and a half just to get there and back for something that took about 20 minutes once I was actually there.

I also received word today that I am officially cleared in Loudoun County to begin that placement.

I am tentatively scheduled to start both my classroom observation at Park View and my one-on-one student tutoring at Rachel Carson sometime next week, so that's exciting.

This is my first semester taking an asynchronous (no class meetings/on your own time within a schedule) class, and it turns out both of my classes this semester are essentially asynchronous. I knew my ESOL class was asynchronous from the beginning, but it turns out my Collection Development class only meets 3 times the whole semester (possibly a 4th time as a wrap-up session), and everything else is asynchronous. So far, I definitely think I prefer actually "having class" on a certain day/time. I don't really feel like I'm in school when I don't actually have to attend class regularly.

Attending class from Disney World

I have to say, as much as I enjoy school most of the time, and as much as I love Disney World, trying to do them at the same time was a challenge. My first week of class was basically during my vacation, so every afternoon/evening I spent time doing my readings and/or signing on to Blackboard to participate in asynchronous class discussions, or to work on assignments. I had two assignments to complete and turn in while down there, two quizzes, and many discussion boards to participate in. It would have been more relaxing if I didn't have to think about school work at the same time. I also had to actually "attend" one class while down there as well, so I had to make sure I was in my hotel room and the internet connection in there was working by 8 pm.

I also managed to get a TB test at Walgreens while down there because it is needed before I go to Loudoun County Public Schools orientation this coming Tuesday for my ESL classroom observation placement at Park View. Because it's a test that needs 48-72 hours before it can be read, waiting until I got back would mean pushing the orientation back even further.

I managed to set up a second placement (I think, it's not finalized yet) at Rachel Carson Middle School with the ESL teacher there, so I can split my time between the placements and experience both high school and middle school ESL. I dropped off the volunteer forms at Rachel Carson yesterday during my lunch break, so hopefully I will be notified soon about what background check stuff I need to do for Fairfax County.

And so it begins again!

The spring 2010 semester officially begins on Wednesday, but my asynchronous class, ESOL in the Content Areas, seems to have already started unofficially. I already have homework to get done by Sunday and more to get done by next Wednesday.

We're also supposed to be figuring out where we can do our "field experience" working with an ESL student in a K-12 setting. I talked with a lady in the personnel office for Loudoun County Public Schools today, and I think things are underway for me to be placed at Park View, where Laura B. works! I need to wait to hear back about fingerprinting and orientation, but at least the ball is rolling on that. I think we're supposed to start actually working with the student by week 3/4.

This is probably the last "fun" post for awhile as school starts full steam ahead.

I did get some time to try out a couple patterns from Tasty Crochet: A Pantry Full of Patterns for 33 Yummy Treats by Rose Langlitz.

I just tried a couple of the smaller patterns (apple slices and peanuts), but they were well-written and easy-to-follow. I have high hopes for some of the larger foods. All of the patterns are adorable, and hopefully Isaac will have fun playing with his new play food.