Happy New Year!

As the old year rushes to meet the new

I'm sending my best wishes to you!
Wishing you a bright and sparkling 2009

ICE! At the Gaylord Texan

Dude, it was COLD!

On the Lap of a Giant Santa Made From Ice

That's Sara, who patiently waited in line for her chance to sit on Santa's lap.

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

Sara and I went to see this wonderful musical at the Bass Performance Hall in downtown Fort Worth. It was great to see a show with the theme of optimism in hard times. Set in 1933 as the country faced the Great Depression, the story seemed to have so many parallels with current events. If only it were so simple: an 11-year-old girl singing "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" to the President, launching the New Deal!

The Non-Bowlers

They looked like they had bowling balls in their bellies!

Bowling: My First Time Ever

Christmas a Day Late

Leah's New Dollhouse

Trampoline Fun

Decorating the Tree With a French Twist

Photo Booth Is Always a Hit

Making Tamales

Christmas Jokes With Reagan and Shane

You Can Take the Ferry to San Francisco

Do you think it was a little cold?

Swan's Marketplace, Built in 1917

Also home to the Historic Housewives' Market. I do not believe they sold housewives there. I just loved the DellaRobbia-style glazed terra cotta reliefs, so I walked all around the building taking pictures of them.

Web 2.0 in Case You Didn't Know

I found this interesting. So I'm sharing it with you.

DONE with My Final!

Words cannot express my relief at having this final behind me. Shades of the GRE... that clock ticking down in the corner of the screen, moments of panic as my mind goes completely blank. Somehow I pulled it off. I hope I did OK. I wore my Lucky shirt (thanks, Suzy). I get a whole month off now! Where's the party? Isn't that what you do when you finish your finals? I guess I could do an undie run down "K" street...

Anjelah Johnson is in my Graduate Class!

Actually, this video, which I had seen before, is part of my practice final. The assignment is to improve customer service at King Burger through systematic instructional design. I don't know if there is really any hope for Bon Qui Qui.

Bad Dog!

It wasn't a very good book, anyway...

My New Friend ADDIE

These are the key course objectives I am studying in preparation for my final exam which is this Tuesday:

1. define educational, instructional, and performance technology
2. describe the implications of cognitive and behavioral psychology, adult learning theory, systems, and communications technologies for education and training
3. describe a systematic approach to the design of instruction presented in the ADDIE model
4. state reasons for using a systematic approach to the design of instruction
5. describe how a systematic approach might change the way you provide instruction
6. describe analyses and ways of approaching given needs and challenges
7. use performance analysis and goal analysis to approach given needs and challenges
8. define differences between performance analysis, needs assessment, goal, task, audience and subject matter analysis and ways you might use them to launch projects
9. from given missions and challenges, conduct lean analysis and design stages of ISD
10. identify the characteristics of a "well-formed" instructional objective
11. rewrite objectives that are ill-formed
12. generate well-formed objectives from given goals
13. compare and contrast criterion-referenced and norm-referenced testing
14. determine whether a given test item matches a given instructional objective
15. describe Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction and their implications for design of instruction
16. differentiate between instruction and information (job aids)
17. describe conditions that make job aids an effective way to improve performance
18. comment on information and instructional combinations with potential for improving performance
19. design and develop a job aid that focuses on the needs of an audience
20. write a brief report detailing the audience, need, format, and rationale
21. describe, and differentiate between, the basic attributes of different learning theories and instructional design theories
22. list the features of the ARCS model of motivational design and describe how you would use this model to enhance strategy

I actually think I am starting to understand it...

Teaching Without Paper

Budget Crisis 2008, The Sequel

Now, thanks to the California Legislature's inability to work together to solve the budget crisis, there is a spending freeze in education. The before-school and after-school intervention classes at my school have been canceled. Staff articulation has been canceled. Field trips, too. And, just to make it even more ridiculous, we are not going to be given any paper. So if I print a progress report on my computer to keep the parents informed of their child's progress, I have to supply my own paper. Or I guess I could ask the parents to please send in some paper.

I am so glad I do not have children or grandchildren in the public education system of this once-great state. It is very sad...

R.I.P. Rex

Rex 2004-2008

Sadly, Rex has passed. Gonna be hard to tell the kids.

It's a ...

BOY!