Long Day, But Good Day
Good morning … we’re here again! Chief was telling me this morning I needed to hold him a little more so game got off to a poor start because of kitty delay.
Sorry … just trying to adjust … I scrolled down a little in the blog, because I was going to look at something and all the pictures are gone and everything is funny coded like in Russian or something. Better sign off and on see if that can be adjusted.
Hmm, that didn’t work and I had cleared cookies, history, and what not. I looked underneath the hood and it seemed like the entries were ok in the edit section, so I think this is going to be one of those times, we just wait it out to see if Blogger is interfering with something. I looked at a few others and on the surface I didn’t see it with other blogs.
Ok, now it’s been quite a while longer. It’s about 9:30 and both sweetie pie and V have signed off for a bit. Most of our time and attention though was in trying to update our virus protection after all is said and done, we are still getting the code in our blog. We’re going to try not worrying about that so much, since I’ve never seen any active people over at Blogger who can help. Yeeks. At least the material is still there. I hope we didn’t do anything to mess it up. It’s a straight forward program. The only thing we can think of was in adding some .png graphics, but that didn’t seem to be a problem yesterday. I don’t think there was anything else. Nope, nope … it still shows up fine underneath everything and in preview. Hmm, ok … let it go, let it go…
We had a rough go of it after we signed off here yesterday. We tried to go to bed, but we weren’t able to sleep. We had some fun though with the kitties. Missy hopped onto our lap first and wouldn’t give up the space to Chief who ALLLLWAYS wins out in the bed game. He was kind of HMPFY. He sat on the top of the chair and wouldn’t talk to anyone. Finally, he hopped down and away. Missy RULES!!! Right now they are playing a game of tag. Not sure whose ahead but it includes attack and run out to the balcony and scratch posting. As long as they don’t run over my feet, the house is there’s!
I think in general, they are both in a pretty darn good mood.
We wrote an email to Dr. M. last night and in it we started off thinking we had been doing pretty good, but by the end of it about 3 pages later, we were crabby and grouchy and out of control. That’s how people end up at Dunkin donuts at odd hours of the morning. We talked about needing to be around people a little more, especially with the blogging folks. Pretty much beside our friend, and school folk, you are the only ones we know. In our whole city, I know no one, except a few of the service people who take care of my needs. Not going down that whole thing again … I just have to find a balance between people and our blog, school, and work. Blah. We also thought about coffee as late as 7:30 at night probably wasn’t such a good idea. We summarized as much as we could about work in a very short amount of space. Right now it’s still at the intolerable stage. We caught him up in school as to our projects and with some of the people relationships including boys and Grandmother. We talked about being over-budget and on the change in our environment due to some of the money issues and purchases. Like we said, we turned a little cranky so in the end we just felt like we were “dumping.” And, we got frustrated at thinking over all the tasks he had “dumped” on us with the catastrophising and seeing grey areas, especially. Again with the need for people and we threw in bad diet plan just to eliminate any sense of conscious we had. We are still angry at him because of all we’ve been dealing with on our own. We felt we were taking care of others, but nobody helped us with us and with the addition of the suicidal ideation everything had just gotten to be too much.
Now this morning … it is almost 10 am, we’ve showered and taken our medicine, have eaten and done our best to protect our investment in the computer. I know I have to make a few calls today, but I’m not really looking forward to that … given the celebratory nature of the day. Its mother’s day today, right? Oh Lordy, don’t really want to think about that. The last thing in the world I want to do is wish my mother a happy M-day. We’ve been out of touch too with my Grandmother. Hmm, I think I might just skip that portion; I’ll concentrate on calling both tomorrow, but no sentimental hogwash stuff today! Hmpf! PLUS, I have to get past the part where I know the boys and this day as well. We’re going to cancel the celebrations all around and get ourselves back into school work. But, if the day works for some of you, go ahead and go for it. We wish you the best. But, let’s not talk about it … k?
I’d like to get back into a better mood, before going back to school. Not sure what to do there. This is us now.
Ok, we probably look pretty pathetic and tired. I’m afraid brushing our hair didn’t help. I think we’re riding somewhere between a little tired and over sugared, so it’s messing with us a little. I think we’re going to try stepping out doors for just a moment to see if we can’t shake this.
Ok, hehehe case in point … it’s nice out there! We talked to a bird. Then, Missy said, “AHEM … that’s like the enemy? And, very edible too if I might add!” Was like … oh ok, be like that. Hmm, now Chief decided he needs to sit with us a while. Missy’s been here already this morning. Chief at least let’s us type and cuddle. He’s pressed his back up against my chest laying between our arms. What he really wants is for me to take might right hand and pet his tummy, but we’re not giving in that easy! Well, just a little pet, but not much. Darn sneaky animals!
Ok, there really isn’t too much you don’t know about already. So, maybe its time we stop fooling around and get down to business. We’ve got that grading rubric to deal with. We know we have to start by making another format. Might do that with side-by-side word documents. When we tried to type within the last one .. The margins really havocked out! I think we have to aim at being honest with where we’re at, but sometimes it is hard because of our ability to recall. We’re sposed to be grading ourselves against the discussion posts and to be honest, I don’t remember much of them. That was our problem last night. But, then we were more tired. So hopefully we can work this out. Maybe we’ll just make the second document here. That will keep us honest. Heheheh Help us quite a bit if you stuck around, but this is going to be some more unfun stuff for you I think. We’ve been trying to leave a 16 point bold heading to block in the school stuff. I’m not sure who would like to read/skip what. So, that was our compromise. Ok. SOOOO, here we go meet you at school.
Here we are over here down by the yellow lockers!
We’re going to grab our supplies … meet us at the library? Maybe it would help if you do the same! Hehehe I think Chief is going to score low in comprehension, but high in attention.
Discussion Evaluation Rubric
Focus on Communicating (Includes Positive first than Negative - 5th Week
Structure & Organization
• Feel intellectually committed to doing my best at each effort
• Good at picking up cues from peers as to being supportive of their learning effort.
• Follow the established format of Capella learners and try to achieve high standards
• Continually searching for a more effective means in communicating best efforts of material as it is understood and integrated with past knowledge
• Conscientious of Professor’s comments to peers in order to gain full awareness of standards being set
• Still working on making each sentence relevant to entire paragraph – no wasted words.
• Not able to yet hold Bloom’s taxonomy while writing paper – more focused on simply answering questions
• Would like to work more closely with outline including introduction and conclusion
• I don’t always tie together well paragraphs – most often I am simply answering questions
Score - 8 of 10
Writing Style
• Feel there are improvements in every effort
• Proud of my work as a groundwork for an ongoing educational effort
• Spend significant time doing things carefully and methodically
• Still experimenting with writing style between formal and informal
Score 8 of 10
APA Format
• Follow APA format in citations and references
• Very conscious of citing statements that were learned from the material being read in comparison to where I implement my own thoughts
• Not fully aware yet of what I am missing and don’t know
Score 9 of 10
Grammar/Usage/Mechanics
• Good use of grammar – all work checked through Microsoft editing
• I am still evaluating mechanics per “feel” rather than exacting knowledge of the language
Score 9 of 10
Focus and Thinking
Content & Focus
• Specific questions answered carefully in papers, research, and journal
• Summarize learning concepts from text
• Cite at least 5 references
• Good at observing information from written work of others, high interest in the material
• Some sentences still not needed
• Depth/breadth still elementary stages
• Have not worked significantly with “family of interwoven modes of thinking” as checks and balances against itself
Score 8 of 10
Analysis and Critical Thinking
• Accurate
• Fairly high on intellectual level in relation to peer group
• Personal relevance higher
• Good comprehension of key points, especially in reading
• Good in summarizing peer work and contributing to their self-analysis
• Professional relevance lower
• Have not been able to develop enough knowledge to problem-solve theories of others that leave off in space
Score 9 of 10
Logic and Flow
• I believe in diagramming out arguments with my peers I am thorough and conscientious
• I try to cover in the papers first definitions, general knowledge, then add new dimensions through the research
• I have good knowledge, comprehension, application, and analysis
• Some definitions too technical, which makes reading sticky
• Have not actively sought out contrasting research work from that which I do use
• I would like to spend more time with synthesis and be more forward minded in my future work
Score 7 of 10
End Discussion Evaluation Rubric
PSHWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOO
Ok Girls … BREATHE!!!!
Hmm, I think we’re do for a break. The next thing we need to do is use the washroom, make a light lunch … Hey! How about a picnic outside?????? Wouldn’t that be nice! Maybe we could bring our book with us … give us something to focus on before coming back to starting on the next big project. Little project left is doing journal. BIG project left is outline for final paper. It be nice to have it done today, but there is no promises … I am leaving open the door that might make it done tomorrow instead. Ok, no dilly-dallying … NEXT!!!
ARGH!!! Anup was unable to assist me. I really, really detest when you ask tech support for help and they send you a laundry list generically generated telling you to fiddle with your computer and turn it off on 7 times while leaning on your left knee with your finger in a light socket. Shoot, sorry little frustrated. I’ve been trying to work through my security issues on the computer since the start of the day. My residual ghost virus had decided to attack. He was spreading little baby viruses as fast as my computer could run. The old virus protector had stopped 61 before we tried something else. I’m not sure if we are just not seeing the problem, or what. Even with the new virus protection I added, I did not see anything saying it took care of that one virus, I can’t seem to shake. It’s updater says I have an urgent problem, but it won’t allow for the update, so we’re going back with Norton – Anup just because I wasn’t aggravated enough with Microsoft Tech support. _)#%&_#*(%&_@#$*(%&@#*(&@#%
And, it’s SUNDAY! Who wants to have a computer issue on a day off??
Well, I suppose we’re going to have to let that go for now too. We did have a very, nice lunch out on the bistro. Big bowl of tuna salad. That was nice. We haven’t seen anyone around lately. I think people are celebr….. nooooo, we forgot not going there. OK. NEXT??
We have to write an outline for a major paper. Ok. Sounds fine. We’ve got coffee, clean ashtray, and a smoke. Cleaned off the table too. Might as well start fresh. Whoops woke up the cat … didn’t mean to do that. Hmm. Now what do I have to do to write an outline? Hmm. Seems we had stored somewhere a bunch of articles we could use for the paper. Let’s look for those first. Probably over in the AOL mailbox. Woohooo!!! We found a special folder just for this purpose and it has full links to about 45 articles on self-regulation/problem solving. We’ll have to come up with some system to skim through that. Why don’t we open the first one. Always a good call.
OK Where are we at?? It’s about 8:30 now and a whole lot of time has gone on since I wrote the last paragraph.
We’ve been working hard throughout the day, but there is a lot of work to be done. We worked most the time on preparing our references. We used the OneNote program to diagram out what we have available. We are starting from the point of view that we know basically nothing about self-regulation except that it is important to learning as is problem-solving. We also know that this is something that usually begins to happen about the time children are three years of age and what is learned at that stage will most likely affect him or her for the rest of her life. Although … it seems to me that metacognition – which is thinking about thinking – can positively tip the scale on the side of the learner.
This is a picture of a small segment of our notes. It’s hard to read, but it should give you an idea what we are looking at. It reads across, so you are looking at the representative information from about 2 ½ resources (vaguely you might see them numbered here as 5., 6., & 7. There are 26 resources and naturally some will get pared out. The first column has the title, author, and source for each reference. The second column is the keywords for the article and we started summarizing a few notes before we decided we needed to condense our thoughts more at this point. So, the material we are reading is getting narrowed down to one sentence, or two in the case of one extra important note. The third column contains the articles abstract, and the fourth column gives a few details of who is involved in the study the article is describing. At this stage, we are forcing ourselves not to read further than the abstract and a few paragraphs from the introduction and discussion (the article’s conclusion).
WOW!!! You want to see something ... I didn't know before! CLICK ON PICTURE!!!
This next part is our summary of the articles main point at the present time as far as I am concerned. In just a short amount of time, relatively speaking, we were able to make these basic statements, which give us our markers from which we’ll base the outline. The paper will be in a sense, utilizing this information available how these bits and pieces tie together. You are seeing the first 10 of 26 articles VERY summarized. Hmm, first time for us in looking at them all in total … good test to see how the process is working. Between the above chart and the next 10 items, you are seeing in a sense my new fashioned way of taking notes … remember the days we put things on flash cards and sorted in outline trees? Hehehe I’d like to think this is how the big girls do it, or at least at this stage of my learning. Heaven knows what learning will look like 9-10 years from now. But, we’re going to make this work.
Oh yeah ... one more thing while we were making the chart with all our resources, we downloaded all the PDF files with the actual article from either the emails or the library. We saved them under author and year the article was published. We are a little worried ... oh no, we don't have to be! YAYYYYY! I forgot ... I only had seen 23 articles saved in the Final Paper file in my documents, but I forgot that three of them were pasted in the email instead of being in a PDF ... Oh good! I thought we were going to need going back and figuring out which one we forgot to download. That's the secret I'm pretty sure ... allow yourself time to do the work and stay organized.
1. Integration of speech and motor behaviors by emitting self-speech allows for intellectual reflection, analysis of action, and plans for a next direction of activity.
2. Direct control techniques (opposed to techniques that were indirect) when used in discipline and teaching showed particularly poor school-related task performance results with at-risk four year olds
3. Self-evaluation and self-reinforcement determine the most effective problem-solving strategies. (Appears to be self-regulatory behaviors).
4. Self-explanation strategy and self-regulation strategy assist the learner in developing knowledge acquisition strategies, which include planning, monitoring and evaluation, comprehension, and strategies.
5. Self-regulation includes metacognition and effort, and metacognition includes awareness, cognitive strategy, planning, and self-checking in solving problems successfully.
6. To succeed in goals and activities, mental simulation can be beneficial to the processes of self-regulation (problem-solving and emotional regulation).
7. For the at-risk children, task performance is correlated with children's verbal ability and use of partially internalized private speech, which may be considered a self-regulatory tool and can be used as an intervention to help parents of difficult-to-manage preschoolers.
8. Manner of instruction (small steps at an appropriate pace) predicted children's attention paid to instructions and help-seeking in the classroom and presenting metacognitive content of instructions (task and strategy information) with emotional support predicted children's monitoring and metacognitive self-talk.
9. Strategy instruction can assist students in understanding and using cognitive processes and self-regulation strategies to problem solve mathematical word problems effectively and efficiently.
10. (Read this entire study before structuring Outline) In a problem-based learning curriculum the most successful medical students yet developing their professional identity learned to self-regulate their learning by developing a stance (where am I?) that was "evolving and interactive-transactive" Most agree with Zimmerman's (1929) conclusion that "students can be described as self-regulated to the degree that they are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their own learning process"
Whew! Pretty darn cool, hmm?? I just love this stuff. I know there are whole books written on self-regulation, so whatever I do in a 25 page paper is just going to be scratching the surface. BUT, I’m excited because this is my best effort so far in putting together research to write something I am personally very excited about. It’s our first BIG step into the world of research using this much structure while focused on keeping the time element simple. I feel like every step I’m taking with the papers at Capella are just teaching me more and more and I get so gosh darn excited.
BUT, for now … we’ve got to concentrating on our next step, which is somehow going to be going to bed. Because of the donut situation and the big tuna salad for lunch, we skipped dinner tonight. Now, we’re having a little reservation, but I refuse to eat at this time of night. Ok, ok, I suppose a pickle to tide us over and settle our tummy won’t hurt anything. Heheheh … looking into our fridge is scary, because you see single items taking up a whole shelf by themselves.
I suppose we better get going then, cuz we know it will take a minute to post. See you in the morning. We’re smoooooooching you to pieces!
posted by Ann Marie @ 5/07/2006 09:25:00 PM
Comments: 3
