Monday, October 26, 2009

AR Thoughts

I've been looking up tutoring agencies here in Santa Monica. I'm interested in thier policies and rates.

I have also contacted a local school to see if they were in need of volunteers. This would get my foot in the door, I would be able to meet teachers, parents, and kids. Plus, I would be able to help kids in the schools. I'm hopeful that the elementary school will contact me to volunteer. I think this will help me find tutorees.

AR IDEAS

New Action Research Ideas
Below is a list of things I’m interested in or could possibly work for my AR Project
Tutoring- Start up a tutoring business.
How to find new students to tutor
Advertising
Business idea- Provide and connect families with prescreened tutors (know student needs match with appropriate tutor). Get qualified tutors (background checks, qualifications, credentials, etc.) and have them tutor students. Basically, I would do all of the grunt work for the families in need of tutors.
Explore other tutors.
TUTOR IN 21st century skills- 16-20 items deeper level learning. *GOOGLE IT*
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ (I subscribed to site 10/21)
One on one learning benefits b/c,
Focus on: Content area, not really social learning (interaction between kids), look into what others are doing for tutoring (non traditional ways), learning disabilities adhd
Foa: Being a great tutor in some way (?) What is the factor (?)
Look for articles for AR

Church- Ask Megan if I can help out with her church (perhaps with children’s group).
I’m not sure what her church’s needs are at this point. One downside is that Is that it’s in Orange County and I’m not too familiar with her church community, but may work! I will be meeting with Megan on 10/24/09
Yoga – I love yoga, not sure what I could do with this, but it’s a big part of my life
Dog
Foster, walking, getting people interested in fostering/volunteering
Cooking – in the past year have become very interested in cooking
Start a cooking group, place to share recipes/altered recipes,
Restaurant
Would love to start a small restaurant. I have a few fun ideas that I would love to try at some point.
Healthy eating/living
I’m into taking recipes and making them healthier. I love goodies and I try to make them with a healthy twist (so you can’t tell the difference!). My boyfriend always asks ‘are you going to tell me this is a healthy brownie?’ (or whatever other goodie or meal I’ve made)
School
Melody’s brother’s private school in santa monica. Hopefully, I will be hearing from him this week. This would be ideal….if I’m able to continue/modify my previous AR project ideas.
I could try to contact another school in area. I don’t know people in the schools personally since I just moved to area. But, schools are usually up for free help (I am anxious because of what happened with 1st AR, I would prefer to have it more in my control)
Volunteer – I am interested in giving back. I have a lot of time and would love to
help others. Below are some Volunteer ideas.
School- getting more people to volunteer in schools. Become mentor, free tutors, teacher helpers, office helpers, etc.
Shelter/homeless-contact local shelters to see what needs they have
Animal shelter- help local shelters, have drives/fundraisers to benefit animal shelter, get more volunteers, more foster homes for pets

Saturday, October 17, 2009

ideas

I have hit a bit of a wall. The action reasearch that I was planning fell through. Perhaps this is a blessing in dsiguise? One can only hope!

As per Paul's request I'm coming up with possibilities for my Action Research (again). I'm trying to think outside the box. I want something that is in my control so that it will not fall through again. Here are some activities that I am interested in and may work.

New Action Research Ideas

Tutoring- Start up a tutoring business.
How to find new students to tutor
Advertising
Church- Ask Megan if I can help out with her church (perhaps with children’s group)
Yoga
Dog
Cooking
Restaurant
Healthy eating/living
School
Melody’s brother’s private school in santa monica
Volunteer
School
Shelter/homeless
Animal shelter

Monday, October 5, 2009

Sibelius and my learning



SIBELIUS
(Ok, quick note, sorry if this seems to be all over but I took notes as I was going along)

Me? A composer? I don’t know that I would take it as a ‘profession’ or that anyone would actually pay me to compose, but it looks like fun.

I’m thinking back to the days when I was a little girl learning how to play the piano or flute (which didn’t last long, I lost interest quite quickly). What do I remember… hmm…not too much.

Alright, so I’ve played and played with Sibelius a lot now. I guess it’s time to get down to business! I just adopted a cute little dog on Saturday and want to show him off. This is something I will post on my blog for my family on the east coast to view as well. So, I created a short little video of his first 24 hours in his new home. I really wish I took a little video of his bath (so cute), but I was more worried about cleaning him up than catching it on film ;).

Now it’s time to compose…wish me luck!

Yea! I put it together, it’s a little rough and probably won’t win me any awards but I like the way it turned out. After a lot of playing I took the video of Casey, our new dog, and wrote down the times when he was doing what (playing, eating, etc.). Then I chose my instruments that I wanted to represent each activity. I created the music piece according the mood that I thought Casey was portraying. I think he could be the next Clooney.

After creating the video and the music piece I couldn’t figure out how to copy the music. So I took out my new video camera (a Flip) and recorded it. Then I played both videos at once and recorded it yet again with my camera. I’m sure there are many ways that I could have gone about doing this project, but the way I did it worked out ;).

There were many times during this activity that I hit ‘road blocks’. I was having trouble downloading the program, then I had to figure out how to use the program, using my new camera, creating a short video from various clips, matching music to video, choosing instruments to match mood (or my perception of the mood), putting those two pieces together, and then recording the whole project and putting online for my Cadre-mates and family to see.

For some of my ‘road blocks’ I used the knowledge of my friends in Cadre 12. Many were helpful and I noticed that there were many people willing to lend a hand to anyone that needed a little help. I also learned from trial and error. I have a tendency to rush right into things and I hate reading directions. I know, it’s bad, but I love to learn on my own. Some teachers call it ‘discovery learning’... I would probably save myself some time if I did read the directions, but I think I might have a little ADD or maybe it’s just impatience. Either way, it worked out and I completed and actually enjoyed the process of completing the project.

It was interesting to think about my learning process. I knew nothing about Sibelius and little to nothing about composing music. And just to make it a little more interesting I had to throw in a video of my new dog. Again, it was taped with a new device and using a new program as well. Do I like to make things more difficult? Maybe. I know that I like to make things interesting, for me and for people that will be viewing my work. I was concerned about it being boring. Again, maybe this has to do with my lack of patience (boredom = lack of interest). Something else I learned about my learning is that I now know when to ask for help. This use to be difficult for me, to admit that I didn't know. But, we can't know everything. If I don't ask for help when I need it then how will I learn? I think this is a major improvement in my learning. I think that I/we feel safe in this program and with my cadre-mates. We know no one will laugh at us if we have a question. It's a reassuring feeling to know that I have 24 cadre-mates' minds to tap into.