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Ok, here is my little problem that had to be overcome: for my pre-instruction pronunciation assessment I had the students use google voice and send me a voicemail message reciting a pre-scripted dialogue in Spanish (using very similar vocabulary to what the students will be preparing on their own for a final pronunciation evaluation) the problem is that I had to have the students tell me who they were in order to record their grade, so their first and last name was in each dialogue voicemail! This wouldn't do so what I had to to was think of a work around and I decided to record the voicemail messages one by one in audacity and then go back and edit out the name of each student. Well, it was time consuming but it worked! Then Amy let me know that a wav file was going to be way to big to put in my paper so now I am going to have a new step...uploading each pre-instruction sample to a podcast, that way I have a smaller file and a live sample, ready to go!

It's Almost Graduation Time!!!

Well, here we are again! I am just amazed that we are so very close to finishing our MAIT degree!!! I'm getting really excited, (I have to admit) and am looking forward to having my degree. I started going back to college (I had had my as. degree) after my daughter was born...I began thinking that I needed to be a strong female role model for her and by not having a higher level college education I didn't think that I was meeting the mark. I felt like someone she could look up to when I earned my Bachelors degree, but I knew that I would always want to continue my education in the future so...fast forward to now and, well...I am doing it! This degree program and timing was just perfect for me, I have Teia here at Southern with me and this program has just been so enjoyable and convenient, I don't think this experience could have been any better for me or for her (since she has had to come to many of the classes!) WOW!

Reflection and Revision

Ah, the two r's: reflection and revision! I think that is what I have had to do every step of the way during this research class! I knew we were in for a tough class...it is Grad school after all, but I don't think that I was fully prepared for how much time I have had to put in to make my paper the best it can be. Today I submitted my reflection on my needs analysis data. It was a short assignment that took me about 40 minutes to complete and submit, but it really gave me something to think about. I love that my data lends itself beautifully to my topic and am really excited to implement my plan with my students and see if their final assessment shows a benefit....or will it show nothing? hmmmmm Of course I think it will have a positive outcome but, will we really know before we review our final data? Here's hoping for the best!

Chapter 3

So, methods and procedures can be checked off my list of chapters to complete! Yay! I think I might actually be getting the hang of this research paper writing! Well, almost....I do still need to make minor revisions but, after 3 hours of locking myself in my room to write chapter 3 I have found success! It wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. NOTHING has been as scary as chapter 2's literature review!  haha.  
I do feel as if I am making some progress in this paper and really do appreciate having the assignments broken down into more manageable parts and of course, getting useful feedback for making corrections!  Thank you Amy for your clear and concise comments for corrections, it is really helpful, especially when I hit a wall with my writing!
I have now started to compile my approved paper parts and think I may even have come up with a title!!!!

I can't believe we are almost done with research and I have to say that we made an excellent decision by taking this class in the fall! Can you imagine if we had less time to write, edit, re-write, edit, re-submit, compile and resubmit? I am thankful for the full semester's worth of time :)

Yay, chapter 4 was a good one!!!!!

Check, check....one, two, three

Yay!   It took me a long time (three hours) to write my chapter 4 evaluation tools, but the time spent seems to have paid off!  I just revised my paper and the revisions were minimal!!!! I have to say, I am very excited that this section went so well, I struggled with writing it correctly for some reason and had a hard time getting it done but, all's well that ends well :)

Now it's time to go back and make revisions on every paper that I have not revised completely yet...ugh, why do I wait so long to get things done? 

Well, I have good house progress news so I think I have been preoccupied with that: I found out that I have an appointment with the RREM grant people tomorrow and hopefully that means that they will be getting me the funds I still need to proceed with my rebuild!! I may not have any furniture when it is finally done but, I am having a big party anyway! We can just sit on milk crates....maybe I should have a bring your on chair party? 's

Learner, Context Analysis and Goals and Objectives

So, I am not sure if I am on target with my papers due on November 1st or not....I seem to question myself every time I turn in an assignment. Hmmmmmm

I turned in two different assignments on the same night, actually one day ahead of schedule, which made me feel happy, and then I got my feedback, ugh.

Half way right is better than not right at all I guess but it didn't make me happy to realize that I flubbed these two papers a bit.  Thankfully Sue S. lent me her IDD book (I have moved way too many times this year and have no idea where mine is!) since I have to revisit parts of Dick and Carey to get me back on track with learner context and objectives!  I actually switched the word objectives in my head and wrote instructional strategies....well, at least I will have them ready for that part of the paper!

Well, back to work I go to revise, review, resubmit!

Statistical Data????

Thank goodness Teia is taking a statistics class in HS! I know nothing of statistics and was a tad bid nervous to write my needs analysis data. It is sort of funny when you ask your 14 year old daughter to help you understand standard deviation and help you create a data table! Hahaha or jajajajaj for all the Spanish speaking readers :) I have to say.... I am really quite impressed with what she has learned in one marking period of HS AP Stat class! (quite cool!) After my child helped me understand how to represent my information, I didn't feel that this part of my research paper was too difficult. I think overall, since I had already compiled my data (I did it last year with my 4th quarter classes!) I only spent about an hour and a half writing my findings..... I sure hope that they were written well!!!! I still can't quite grasp APA 100%, although I am getting better at it with each paper edit! Thanks for the guidance Amy!