"Oh swish!"

With thanks to http://girlgetstrong.com/wordpress/ for this ... Hilarious! Why do we not speak like that anymore? It's a damn shame, I tell you!

This was my grandmother's era - no wonder she locks and bolts the doors and windows at night...the changes from then to now, to have lived through it all.

I've never really been a huge fan of Youtube. I like the concept but I can't stand the pauses as clips download...however have to find clips about digital literacy for an assignment so have an excuse to go searching...

In the midst of study

a picture I found after googling "mad librarian"...:)

It resembles my current state of mind as I am in the middle of assignments...just got my 2nd one finished at the end of last week (already late as I'd had my computer die the week before). I went to submit it electronically, only to discover that my perception that an online course would involve online submission of assignments was a product of my imagination - they still have to be posted! Of course it was right before Good Friday and Easter Monday public holiday so all that furious last minute scribbling and the dratted thing is STILL sitting here with me!

cast of the ABC series "The Librarians"

Two of my other assignments are meant to be uploaded to a wiki/blog/website. Group work can be a pain but it is still infinitely more absorbing than typing 2000 words about something someone else said. I have been spending a bit of time reacquainting myself with Twitter and setting up a ning group for the Master of Ed (Teacher-Librarian) students - trying to get a few more together for study sessions and to discuss assignments. So far Krista and I seem to be the only ones foolish enough to study full-time so perhaps that's why we're so panicked (well, I am at least!) about assignments and keen to chat to others about it.

Here is the ning group. So far there are just 3 of us, but I know the rest of the class are just dying to be in our gang and will join soon...:P

And here is my plan for getting through the rest of the course:

What do you mean, how is that a plan? An army of highly trained, highly literate kittens, who will be able to research and put together dazzling professional critiques??

Hahaha, funny how stress is already in my list of tags!

Another cup of tea, love?

Oh yes please. I've definitely had more than half a dozen cups today...as well as a cappucino whilst passing on the baton to Mum down the street (the baton being my darling girl :)

Trying to get my first major assignment organised for my Masters...amidst dire computer issues. I have some sort of Internet Explorer problem: after a random amount of time online, I receive a Microsoft error message. If I click "Don't Send", it immediately shuts down any web pages I have open. If I click "Send" it really starts looking like a virus and starts asking me personal questions etc. Oh, and it also started redirecting me to random pages from google searches...

I have spent the better part of the last month trying to sort the damn problem out via a flurry of emails with my Antivirus provider (BullGuard, if you're interested). I've been with them since I bought the laptop in 2006 and I don't recall ever having a problem in that time.

I couldn't afford (the time OR money) to put the thing in for servicing and as it was dated and not keeping up with the workload anyway, I bought a new one (an EEE PC which I will introduce another time!). Technically it was courtesy of Kevin Rudd's stimulous package but as that also helped pay the rates and new tyres and car servicing I may also owe my credit card provider some love...oh I hate being poor!

Anyway: sadly I managed to screw up and transfer the virus to the eee pc *sad face* so I am still suffering...thankfully the lecturer has been understanding of my plight and granted me a few days grace to finish the assignment (which I am flaunting by posting on here but technically it is related to the course so it counts as hard work :)

Back to the digital revolution: the article I have chosen for the paper is on pop culture pedagogy and the possible end of school as we know it. I have found some fascinating info on possible schools of the future and whether there will be any schools at all! Will have to come back later to provide links as the Internet Explorer error message has popped up and will probably shut me down soon!

Unemployment and filling the time

Have started my Masters of Education. I am going to be a Teacher-Librarian (or just a plain librarian it will qualify me for either).

So far:

LIKES
Learning about lots of whizzy fandangled cyberspace gadgets (finally getting an excuse to try out Second Life...as if the First One isn't busy enough)
Having an excuse to loiter in a school library
...and on the internet!
Getting in touch with others who are interested in the same things.
Hope: that I am finally on the right path and anticipation at the lovely library jobs I might one day have!

DISLIKES
Stupid, bloody irritating annoyingly offputting virus that latched onto my computer during a recent sojourn at my cousins. Perfect bloody timing! Everytime I logon to the net I get a Microsoft Error message which promptly shuts down the web. And I keep getting redirected to junk advertisements! I've never had a proper virus before so this is a whole new world of PAIN!
Having to READ so much guff. Some of the academic language they use in the articles we have to read is so POINTLESS and irritating!
Computer headache :(

I am happy to be on the course. It lasts for 12 months and at the end I will be a qualified librarian. The Masters will give me a few more points for the visa to get back into the UK but I still have to head back there before my 30th birthday. Which means teaching in Asia (or somewhere) is still on the cards.

The job I was looking at over the Summer did not work out so now I have to wait until the Aug/Sept round. Good thing is I can study this course from anywhere in the world, so I can still apply for jobs o/seas. Bad news is that apparently the economic downturn has caused many schools to put a freeze on recruitment. As my recruiters already consider me 'difficult to employ' this is going to make things interesting...although one recruiter did tell me that it may mean international schools will now be more open to one year contracts, which is FANTASTIC for me!

I've also read that in the UK school system, Miss M will be eligible to start proper school after her 4th birthday, which, unfathomably, is this September!

Procrastination

I cannot fathom what is the matter with me. Before the course books came I was so hyped for Tesol and ready to complete the whole lot in a couple of weeks and be...GONE. Now I find I can barely lift the cover (that's if I can find the books at all).

Firstly, it has to be studying alone...by distance, whatever. It is quite desperate at the best of times but in this case (in comparison to my 3 previous experiences of study via distance), the college really have abandoned me to my own devices. There are no online or phone tutorials (although there is a tutor I can contact via email. She is in Melbourne, I think). There is no 'Blackboard' or virtual learning environment where I might interact with other students. There is no schedule for learning and actual checkups as per the Gaelic course with Sabhal Mor Ostaig.

It's just me and these bloody books...and don't get me started on them! FRUSTRATING! It feels like there should be a second book to explain the first. There are huge gaps in information - and I am a bloody English teacher! A few activities I've worked through so far have been so sparsely explained I've actually had to email the course tutor - unheard of in the history of saoghalbeag studying!

I think it is also difficult because I am not based in a school to be able to apply the learning - or even to assess the learners themselves and comprehend where they are coming from.

There is also the one parent family procrastination. I find it impossibly hard to knuckle down for real study when she is around. I know I am going to be interrupted the minute I start so I don't. Start. I do everything else possibly possible before I start the TESOL - which means it usually starts around 4pm when there are no toddler programs on telly to distract her and she's starting to get tired and cranky and hungry and then I decide I should probably bath her and start dinner anyway...but by this stage I am getting desperate to at least do SOMETHING of the course so instead I persevere. I also feel guilty that here I am learning how to make learning fun for other people when I can't even find a spare minute to work on an activity with her. So I will make a cake with her or make a mess with paint and glue, or go into the garden...

We now have a fully landscaped and manicured front yard thanks to TESOL.