That's what friends are for?

Could you all do me a huge favor and listen to the song "that's what friends are for" Yes a seemingly lovely little ballad about friendship that plagued graduations for decades until it was replaced by that awful vitamin C...anyway, the song goes on about friendships and being there for one another, the duet subtly indicates that men and women can be very much plutonic...But after this long sweet ode...suddenly a sarcastic "yeah" as in "yeah right".  It makes the whole song seem like a joke!  So is it that friendship is a joke or perhaps that men and women actually cannot be friends!? OR since it's the man who says it, is he just going along with the friendship but really wants more???? OH THE POSSIBILITIES

These little earthquakes

Oh these little earthquakes
Here we go again
These little earthquakes
Doesn't take much to rip us into pieces-Tori Amos

Just felt an actual Earthquake in upstate New York....ccccrazy!  I was sitting on my bed and it was quivering, looked over at my dog who was shaking and assumed it was him, but he was shaking because everything else was shaking!!!!

Love Notes

As an English Major I will now quote an overquoted writer of taste, "The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.-Edna St. Vincent Millay.  Shocker.  Well this quote got me thinking about relationships, something I've vowed to put less thought into now that I'm in my 30s and pretty much spent my 20s postulating the whys and hows.  However, one truth remains in my many many years of dating and that is that my long distance relationships usually held more excitement.  They did not have the burden of the everyday routine, and though, many people enjoy spending every waking minute together...I do not.  Don't get me wrong I am in a very happy relationship right now with a boy in extremely close proximity...incessantly.  It just seems that we've moved from the simple joy of seeing each other to the expectation and obligation phase rather quickly.  As a writer and avid reader I enjoy dragging things out and testing them at every turn for their true potential.  Perhaps, my significant other had one of those "she's the one" moments and does not feel the need to prolong our courtship...but it would have been nice.

        So, I just finished reading "The English Major" by Jim Harrison and I have to say I enjoyed it immensely.  It's only about 250 pages and it was a great vacation read.  I love that he traveled something I love to do.  I have always wanted to publish a travel log type of story.  I was at Bethany Beach in Delaware and I highly suggest it to the eastcoasters.  It's not quite as far as the Carolinas and it has the same atomosphere.  Surrounding Bethany Beach is Rehoboth, Dewey and Ocean City, Maryland.  I went to all of them and spend just 7 days and 6 nights in a lovly four-bedroom condo.  My adivce: Stay away from the Buffets they are pricey and not very good.  I believe the average was $33 per person.  Also, after a brief rainstorm the waves are glorious!  Onto the next place in the am...

I'm cute, trendy, and mainstream and I love it! (anti hipster)

If there is one thing I loathe it is a hipster with their greasy hair, ugly clothes, bad music, post college postulations on life, CHUCKS! (converse sneakers...ew).  I'll admit I've gone a few days without washing my hair and to tell you the truth...it looks pretty damn good, probably because my hair is so damn dry from processing (something a hipster would never do).  I'll admit I've tried a fashion trend or two for example ripped jeans, corduroy pants, hell I even had patent leather airwalks at one point, but as an adolescent that is normal.  Ok, I love music, it is my life, but the crap that hipsters listen to isn't even good!  In fact, have you ever seen one dance? AWFUL.  I've done the whole soul searching, why and who and when and how bullshit and now I'm living my life, not talking about it.  Lastly, NO ONE should ever wear chucks and I say chucks because that is what converse sneakers have been re-named by hipsters.  I recall during my skater stage in the 90s I wore a lime green old man sweater...and a superlong old lady skirt...but I'm over it.  Hipsters listen up: It's not a lifestyle it's a phase, I never see 60 year old hipsters and in another 10 years all of you will be mainstream so suck it up and stop wasting the best years of your life in ill-fitting ugly attire PLEASE! The world will thank you annoying idiots trust me...yours truly, the anti hipster :)

Baby, you're gorgeous

WOW! If you have seen Beyonce's video for "best thing I never had" then you have seen the most BEAUTIFUL wedding gown I have ever laid eyes on! I love the message, the video has a realistic feeling about it.  It's almost as if you are watching someone's personal wedding video and listening to what they are thinking.  Or someone who is viewing their wedding video and remembering the past and how the present has been so much better. This dress comes from Baracci Beverly Hills on Wilshire Blvd.  If you are looking for this type of dress, but do not have the money many people sell used ones on ebay.  I often like the idea of something that is used, because there is a story behind it.  If the wedding where the dress was previously worn worked out then it is good luck, if not, then the beautiful dress gets a second chance to be someone's best memory, and why deny a beautiful dress that opportunity??!!

Beachsexy Custom Tan by Victoria's Secret

For the last two nights I have used VS Beachsexy custom tan adjustable self-tan lotion with shimmer.  I have tried many sunless tanners resulting in a streaky orange mess where I'm told I look like I have a skin disease or  that I'm dirty (as in it looks like dirt is all over my skin). Lovely, I used one many years ago call "NO-AD" and I have to say I haven't found one that comes close.  Bath and Body works was another good one, but they seem to have stopped making it, and just have the gradual tanner now which does not gratify my A.D.D. haha.  So, I thought I'd give this one a shot so there I was exfoliating with clinique in the shower then lubing up with Glysolid classic body lotion.  I waited about an hour then carefully adjusted the knob on the tanning bottle to Subtly Sunkissed (the lightest shade) and voila.  I woke up this morning VERY subtly sunkissed with no streaking.  I will say VERY subtle because you can hardly tell I have anything on.  I will hopefully be getting a more deeper tan as the color builds.  The only thing I suggest is using a make-up wedge sponge to do the feet...especially, if your feet are the color of a sheet of paper like mine are.  The nice thing about this sunless tanner is that there is a dial that allows you to adjust the tan to whatever color you want from subtly sunkissed to deep bronze.  It also doesn't smell like feet or a dog's breath like most of the others, it smells like the beach! The shimmer is really only noticeable the day it is applied, and because I always apply mine before bed it usually wears off.  I have had too many sunless tanning disasters to apply it and then go out in public, but if you're brave you will sparkle like Edward Cullen.  Overall, I do suggest this product, retail value is $14 but I got a sale of buy one get one free! Happy tanning the SUNSAFE way! :)

Thespianage...if you will

Moving back to the city has me superexcited, but also a little sad to leave what I have here.  Teaching is so important to me for so many reasons, mostly because my school experience was awful due to horrible teachers.  That said, the acting bug has bitten me.  It is extremely tempting to get back into acting.  I loved taking classes, it was really an outlet for me and I tend to lose my mind without an outlet...my ideal situation would be teaching, and running drama club in a school.  That is my dream...But enough of that.  My real issue is my living situation.  Because this is an unpaid four month internship I will be shacking up with my adorable cousin in Queens...in her kitchen.  Yes, not even close to a dream, but it could be worse.  So, thespianage is my goal, to stake out all the auditions, and classes that I can.  Thespiange! Viva La Resistance!

Crackle Nail Polish

So Today I tried Sally Hansen's crackle nail polish in red over plain black.  The crackle effect was achieved, but I felt it looked a little like a bad pedicure so I added some Sally Hansen "snow globe" glitter polish over it....Overall, crackle does exactly what it claims, I'm just not sure it's for me. As you can see the glitter isn't really noticeable in the picture, but does add a bit of shine :)

Final Reflection

I have learned so much during this online class, I really enjoyed working in groups.  I found the readings on what is changing in schools to be interesting because it's amazing that we went from pagers to cellphones in what seems like overnight.  Now, we are going from desks to handheld virtual classrooms.  It was so interesting to be a part of this class, because I've never been in an online class before.  Blogging took getting used to, because I'm always wary about putting my personal thoughts out there, but it's becoming something I do enjoy.  I learned a lot about the many google apps. while doing my final project, and how schools are taking advantage of them in their instruction.  I must be on the google site at least ten times a day, and had no idea there were so many resources on it.  I feel like I was behind the times a little.
    Another very important skill I learned in this class is time management.  This has always been a issue for me, taking on more than I can do in a day.  The technological aspect scared me a little because I did not anticipate spending hours trying to figure out how to use a single application (which happened a few times, I won't lie haha), but once I got the hang of learning where to look for instructions and examples it was pretty easy to complete what was expected of us.  My team, team techsavy worked extremely well together, and though we had to meet in person a few times it was definitely a learning experience to do all of our projects online.  Coordinating meetings posed a challenge as well, because of our conflicting schedules.  Overall, our group did very well working this out, and getting things done.  I was very impressed with us!
    There were always little glitches here and there, and I'm glad Dr. S. was understanding of them; because nothing is perfect, not even technology.  I will aedit I was someone afraid of technology, but after taking this class I am much more comfortable, and confident about using the internet in teaching.  Kids today are always connected to some sort of technology so why not use it as a tool to teach them!

Picasion-better late than never

http://i.picasion.com/pic40/aabc8ce6e718b760b5226e1997300fcf.gif

I found this project to be laborious.  I would have enjoyed doing more of what we did with the digital footprints where it's more personal accomplishments as oppose to webpages.  I will say picasion is an extremely easy, use-friendly site and I would recommend it to anyone looking to make a slideshow, it's much easier than slideshare.

WoWzers!

 1) what you learned about yourself and teaching with technology from completing this assignment.
Well, I learned that I am capable of completing an assignment like this.  I was dreading this for the entire semester, but once I sat down and really tried to figure it out, I understood it.  I know it may not be as involved or nice as other people's but I am impressed with how far I've come with technology.
 2) how what you planned was received by your peers, what you liked about your teaching/presentation and what you would do differently if you were assigned to present this topic again; and
 3) tell how this Literacy topic or Technology/software would be useful in a classroom curriculum.

Collaborative tools for schools

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Collaborative tools for schools

View more presentations from LaurenKroll.

*TEAM TECHSAVY NEWSLETTER*

1) Why is communication important between teachers and parents? Communication is important because parents should know what their children are doing, and how they are doing.  If there are weaknesses then parents should work with students at home.  The only way for a student to get a well-rounded education is to also be learning outside of the classroom.

2) In what way will you communicate with your students’ parents? I plan to have an online site to communicate with parents and students, if that is unavailable to me I would certainly create a quarterly newsletter with all contact information on it.

3) What new communications software applications would be fun to try to communicate with parents for sharing assessment techniques?  I think any type of secure networking site is good for communicationg with parents.  I was very impressed with schoology, and look forward to trying that out.

4) What software did you use, why did you choose to use it? For this particular assignment we used letterpop.  I feel any type of program such as publisher would work to create a newsletter.  I am happy that letterpop was free though.

5) How was it to collaborate on this project?  Team techsavy did a great job collaborating.  We were very progressive in our ideas, and figure out exactly how we wanted to structure it very quickly.

6) What would you do differently if you did a Class Newsletter again? I may use a different program, as I found letterpop to be confusing, and not user friendly.

Engrade/Engage

Many of the ideas I have for teaching English involve online message boards, to promote interaction.  I especially feel this is a great way to teach dramatic literature as the students may take on different character personas while communicating on an online site.  It is a lot easier for people to be in a certain character online, because it is a way to hide your true identity.  This idea only feeds into that, but will promote learning, because students will have a legitimate reason to be able to be someone else online, and learn something about their character in the process.

Schoology actually seems to be a good way to do that or the program used for our online classes.  I am developing many lessons for English, that I hope I will soon get to use.  I thought this was a neat picture, that describes how learning is changing...

Schoology the facebook of school

I found this to be such a useful tool for students and teachers.  This is such a modern way to interact that the students can relate to.  This is what the students are used to with all the social networking sites, and this is just a more familiar way to interact.  The fact that you can add online tests and different courses is such an amazing way to keep students learning even outside the classroom or perhaps have an entire school online.  Some sick children who cannot come to school or children overseas who would like an education in the US would  benefit greatly from this type of school.  I found this youtube video about the site:

Writing an Essay

Writing an Essay I found digital storytelling in an English class to be ironic, because so much of it is focused on writing. I do see how it is a good way to get students interested in the subject. It was easier to make than I thought. The words digital storytelling always made me nervous, but this was not as hard as I thought it would be. I could definitely see myself using this in the classroom to introduce all types of literature in English class.

Digitally Me

Creating my digital footprints was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I was sitting here wondering what I could possibly put into it when I just decided to put in everything that has led me to the decision to be a teacher.  My first thought was while I was getting my B.A. at SUNY Stony Brook when a professor suggested it to me.  While I was studying and acting in NYC many people told me I had a knack, and patience to teach people.  I still was not convinced so I went to SUNY New Paltz to get my Masters in English.  After some thought, and focusing on other things I finally came to the conclusion that teaching is for me.  I am very excited to begin the final career decision of educating!

Lauren

Toolkit has changed my life forever

I had a lot of fun creating my section of the toolkit.  I found the readings helpful, as it gave me a more clear idea of how to go about creating one.  My other teammates also helped me with their examples.  I still am having a little trouble getting some pictures to show up in the toolkit if anyone has any ideas for that.  The sites I found, I will definitely come back to as they are very helpful for teaching.  This project forced me to use higher thinking, because I have no experience with this.  I have thought deeply about the type of teachers I have had in the past, and how little technology was used.  I am angry that I was not prepared for this technological world we live in.  I will not allow my students to go out into the world with no knowledge of the tools available for them.  This would make things so much easier, and if I had known about all this ie. google docs my scholastic life would have been a lot easier....

Powerpoint

I did my PowerPoint Presentation on Chatty Chris, I feel like I learned a lot about proper chatroom etiquette.  I was never one to join chatrooms, considering my Father used to catch predators, and would probably have broken my computer if he saw me talking to people I did not know. hahaha.  But there are a lot of children who do not have supervision and it would be a good idea for the them to learn about these things in school.Having grown up around so much talk about internet predators I feel I had an advantage, and I often forget not everyone knows the dangers.  I found googledocs easy to use, which was a shock because I have never even considered using it before.  Now, I plan to for many of my projects in the future.  Team techsavy is still working together well and I am excited for our next project!

March 1, 2011

I feel like things are finally beginning to make sense.  I still have some kinks to work out in some of my project, and I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly is due and when.  If there was some sort of checklist it would make things more helpful.  I had a lot of fun creating my wiki page, and my WDYDWYD page, when I actually figured out how to use it.  I feel like our group works well togther.  Tonight Granger, Monique, and I met at Barnes and Noble and got some work done, and were able to discuss some of our concerns. 

Obviously not a computer genius :(

technology

I am finding so many useful resources because of this class.  I've never done an online class, and it is challenging, but rewarding everytime I figure something out on my own.  I can see how using technology will help a variety of different learners, and it is especially useful for special education students.  There should be more options to take online classes in the education program, because that is what education will eventually become.  I am slowly discovering how to use various resources, but I am confident that it will all make sense by the end of the semester.

Literacy and Technology thus far

So far, I feel as though I am struggling a little with this class.  I did benefit from last nights online meeting.  I am excited to learn how to use technology in the classroom!