It is the end of the short five weeks, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ready for a break. I love school, (#nerdalert) but that was a long 5 weeks. Admittedly, I learned much more than I thought and am going back to school with so many ideas to share with colleagues, which is exciting!
This experience reminded me, in a few ways, of how I sometimes feel at school. Teaching is amazing, and there is no other job I would rather do. But it isn't easy, and there is a lot on my plate most of the time. Many times, there is just so much that I want to do, and I just don't have enough time to do so.
That is how exactly how I felt about taking three classes this summer. I wanted to be able to do it all - tweet about my experience, read all my classmates blogs, participate in all discussions in all classes, etc. I am being honest when I say I did all I could, and it seems like it wasn't enough! Did I participate enough? Was that the best article I could find? How did I not notice my podcast needed music - I swear I read all the directions? Oh shoot - I missed a document (#storyofthissummer).
My son is 14 months, and while I am lucky to have my husband home as he is also a teacher, I LOVE my family, and owed them my time too. Life goes by too fast, and I had to put the computer down sometimes and not let it pass me by!
I did my best, and this time around, that might have to be enough for me :)
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
Podcasting | Ummm
Several later I have finished my Podcast. I'm rather proud of it actually, as I think it turned out pretty well. Strong educational content, I kept it light and humorous (that's just who I am), and even squeezed in a Kardashian reference. See? The humor.
Several hours you say? You talked for several hours? NO. No I did not.
1. I planned for 20-30 minutes, as I knew what I was going to talk about, I just needed to jot down some notes so I had a plan.
2. I recorded myself in Garageband. I often have students asking me for help with Garageband, and it had been so long since I used the program it was hard to help them. With that in mind, I decided to refresh my memory and use the program to record my podcast.
3. The recording begins - the easiest part! I liked my tempo and volume, and only had to stop recording a couple of times as the dog was barking, and I wasn't sure that was a necessary component of the episode.
4. Then the editing began, and so the next hour of my life. You see, I didn't realize that I am one of those miserably annoying human beings that says "um" a lot. Guess what? I AM. AND IT IS AWFUL. I must have edited out 4,395,290 ums. Ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating, but it felt like that many. How embarrassing!! Is that what I sound like when I am teaching or carrying on a conversation!?! Why didn't someone tell me to get it together and articulate my thoughts? It's bad enough hearing your own voice but to hear it like that - just awful.
5. I pulled myself together and uploaded the podcast to iTunes, and then the next 5 hours began. At first it was just ridiculous that I simply could NOT get this podcast to upload. I won't get into it, as I just don't want to go there, but man, it was a struggle-fest. I KNOW it shouldn't have been that hard, especially for someone like me who is generally tech-savvy, but it was rough. Between the files and uploading a properly sized photo (another whole hour) I have a picture that looks like it was created by a elementary school student, but a photo nonetheless. I will continue to play around with it, but at least the podcast is done!
I have linked it to the left, and hopefully it will be up on iTunes tomorrow! (Maybe by the time you check the photo won't be so bad, but I make no promises. SoundCloud is finicky!)
And so I end this podcast with 2 questions today-
1. Is there something you realize that you do, either in teaching or in life (or both) that you never realized?
2. Have you ever gotten frustrated because you KNOW something you are doing should be much easier than it is!?
Several hours you say? You talked for several hours? NO. No I did not.
1. I planned for 20-30 minutes, as I knew what I was going to talk about, I just needed to jot down some notes so I had a plan.
2. I recorded myself in Garageband. I often have students asking me for help with Garageband, and it had been so long since I used the program it was hard to help them. With that in mind, I decided to refresh my memory and use the program to record my podcast.
3. The recording begins - the easiest part! I liked my tempo and volume, and only had to stop recording a couple of times as the dog was barking, and I wasn't sure that was a necessary component of the episode.
4. Then the editing began, and so the next hour of my life. You see, I didn't realize that I am one of those miserably annoying human beings that says "um" a lot. Guess what? I AM. AND IT IS AWFUL. I must have edited out 4,395,290 ums. Ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating, but it felt like that many. How embarrassing!! Is that what I sound like when I am teaching or carrying on a conversation!?! Why didn't someone tell me to get it together and articulate my thoughts? It's bad enough hearing your own voice but to hear it like that - just awful.
5. I pulled myself together and uploaded the podcast to iTunes, and then the next 5 hours began. At first it was just ridiculous that I simply could NOT get this podcast to upload. I won't get into it, as I just don't want to go there, but man, it was a struggle-fest. I KNOW it shouldn't have been that hard, especially for someone like me who is generally tech-savvy, but it was rough. Between the files and uploading a properly sized photo (another whole hour) I have a picture that looks like it was created by a elementary school student, but a photo nonetheless. I will continue to play around with it, but at least the podcast is done!
I have linked it to the left, and hopefully it will be up on iTunes tomorrow! (Maybe by the time you check the photo won't be so bad, but I make no promises. SoundCloud is finicky!)
And so I end this podcast with 2 questions today-
1. Is there something you realize that you do, either in teaching or in life (or both) that you never realized?
2. Have you ever gotten frustrated because you KNOW something you are doing should be much easier than it is!?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)