week 10 blog June 2, 2010

I think the biggest thing I learned this semester is how to set up and use a blog and the many uses it can be used for.

I most definitely wasn’t expecting to participate in a feminist pedagogy and yes I do believe this course exemplifies a feminist pedagogy.

I met course objectives to the very best of my ability. Being disabled on several counts made it very, very hard at times to meet course objectives.

I would apply my new knowledge for information sharing, communication and possibly as a way to transfer knowledge as we did in our teaching project.

I think I would like to teach about hand sewing May 21, 2010

I think I would like to teach about hand sewing. It is almost a lost art form as well as being functional, you can do it anywhere, anytime without waking anyone and it makes for easier alterations. My technology would include metal sewing needles, two quilters thimbles , a free formed pattern, metal or ceramic scissors, and accessories as desired.

There is so much that can be done with hand sewing. I made my youngest daughters hooded bathrobe by hand. The quilts I have made by hand lasted years longer than the ones made on a sewing machine. When my older children were small, I made almost all their cloths. Its fun, creative and a great way to save money!

The history of sewing is a long one and what we can do today is miraculous compared to how it started. It is something everybody should know.

Challenges and Progress with Financial Analysis project May 21, 2010

I had fewer challenges with this project than I did with the cultural project. For one, I had control of the information I needed, knew where to find it and how to make the table to post it. I didn’t have to depend on anyone else for the information I needed and having previous experience with Excel and Word made putting the information together a moderately simple thing to do.

I had a horrid time with screen shots. I was able to make it work at the beginning of the term when we screen shot our links to our classmates blog sites but I have yet to get it to work for me since.

I learned with this project that there are a million little details that have to be taken care of for even what seems like the most straight forward dream or plan.

My Dreams May 9, 2010

My biggest dream used to be to travel Europe on Eurrail and staying in hostels at interesting places but that was when I was young and the amount of time required to be on my feet is no longer feasible. My latest BIG dream is to go to Australia to see my son and daughter-in-law before I’m too old or too sick to travel at all. I like to spend about three weeks so I can seem some of the tourist stuff since it would be the last trip I take in this lifetime. So I will need to research the costs of hotels/motels, whatever there are in the area of where my son lives and the possibility of renting a car without a local drivers license. The average cost of meals and whether or not they include gratuity the way European restaurants do. I need to plan for the local gas prices and definitely set something aside for souvenirs. I’m pretty sure that covers everything. If you think of something I’ve missed please tell me in a comment. Thanx!

WHORAH! May 7, 2010

I am happy to announce that, with the much appreciated help of M. Van London, I have finally exceeded the minimum word count for the cultural project! I am so happy that my five weeks of effort won’t have been in vain and am very, very thankful for M. Van London’s help!

Finish up for Cultural Project May 1, 2010

I had the hardest time finding original information about Heidemarie. There was a limited amount of data listed over and over again but not a lot of meat to work with. It was hard finding articles about who she was as a human and really hard to get much on her Naval career. I never got any response back from the Navy library but I did get some information from the St. Paul library. All in all I found this project very frustrating. It was fun to learn how to imbed links to references and link pictures. The process was a very good experience but the project topic was a disaster. I couldn’t come close to 1000 words for my project much less the minimum of 2000 and I have spent more hours on this project than all the other things I’ve done all term!

Experience with resource librarian April 26, 2010

I sent an email to the chief Public Relations officer for the Navy to see if I could get more information on Heidemarie and her pre and post NASA career. All i could find on my own so far is about her NASA career which isn’t much. I sent a note card last week too to the only address I could find for Heidemarie M. Piper in the united states but haven’t received a reply yet if it is even the right person. I left a phone message, I sent an email and I tried to use the live chat. As of present I have received no return call, but I am long distance so that could well be an issue, I just sent the email this morning so there may not have been time yet for anyone to return a message. I did talk to Emily via the Chat function and she suggested contacting the St. Paul library for information on Heidemarie since that is where she was born and raised.

I don’t know yet what they may have or if they loan long distance. I’m checking that out now.

Week 4, Blog 3, third revision April 19, 2010

expansion on WHAT: It wasn’t that Heidemarie invented something new or used technology that hadn’t already been used. What makes Heidemarie special is that she took a minor defeat (disqualified from Navy Pilot training due eyesight), turned it into a success by choosing diving and salvaging as her career field and using that specialized training to take her to the starts. Heidemarie says it is primarily her ability to work well in both a team environment and outside the box. She says she couldn’t have accomplished what she has without those skills. Without team work, the end project cannot succeed, says Heidemarie.

Test Blog April 19, 2010

This blog is only to see if I need to actually link a post with a specific category to make it show up under categories. Wow, it worked. I used this blog and linked it to both my financial category and teaching category. As soon as I published it, both categories showed up under the category sidebar. So, even though I had definitions in each of the categories, it doesn’t actually show up in the sidebar till you use it. COOL

Week 4 Blog April 19, 2010

Heidemarie was the seventh woman astronaut to walk in space. She was the first female U.S. Navy Engineering Duty Officer to qualify as a salvage diver. She is listed in the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame. She wanted to do something that was both mentally and physically stimulating. She wanted to be a pilot but was disqualified due to her eyesight. When she found that a space flight scheduled to add onto the International Space Station required extensive diving training, something she had in spades, she applied and was accepted to the candidate school in 1996.