AN EXTREMELY BUSY CD WEEK:
Well, week 3 is almost over. This has been a really busy week for me because this week’s assignments took longer for me to do. Usually I like to do 2 a day, but that did not always happen. I had a test on Tuesday that I studied for on Monday and this took time away from this class. So, I did not start the week off the way I wanted to and from there it just seemed to be a real hectic week.

This weeks assignments included subscribing to a Professional mailing list. We had to, research the web on our last name and on the topic we want to research by using various search engines. ALso, we needed to familiarize ourselves with other websites. This included other resources (internet library, Eric Digest). We had to develop a prompt on “Re-conceptualizing Professional Teacher Development." Also, we had to write about our history as a learner. In addition to this take a learning style inventory. We had to begin putting together our Webliography. Also, we needed to begin answering our research question. We also needed to begin reading teh outline for the MRP. Whew!! That was a lot to do this week and I am just glad I finally finished it all.

Signing up to the web was real interesting. There were not too many sites on Phonological disorders; however, I was able to subscribe to a group that had parent’s views of the disorders as well as speech pathologists’ views. This group is called Phon-d, it has 212 members, and I get about 6-9 e-mails a day. I really did not have a problem subscribing to the list. The only problem was that I had to wait for the conformation of the mailing list which took 2 hours to receive. So, in the mean time, I was thinking that I did not sign up to the group correctly, but I really had. Next, I read a lot of information about how to search the web. I never really knew the difference between a meta-search engine and a search engine and I think I like the search engines better. I would rather have articles come up from one site instead of three or four different ones. Searching the web by using different engines was really helpful. Some site found thousands on my topic and last name where others did not. I found it real interesting to do a search on my last name and I was amazed at how many “Puigs” I found on the net. Also, searching the sites on my topic will come in handy when it comes time to researching my topic. Also, I found the other sites useful too. I was able to find many interesting articles on my topic in American Speech Language Hearing Association, but it kept telling me that I needed to be a member in order to get access to these articles. When I went to the Internet Public Library website and typed in my disorder, it kept bringing up diseases and not phonological disorders. As for Eric Digest, I was able to use this site, but I could not find anything pertaining to phonological disorders. However, I would like to find an article on how a person with a phonological disorder interacts at school, so, I will keep looking. The next assignment dealt with how I learn best in this field. I think the best way to develop as a speech pathologist is experience, research, collaboration, and continuing my education. I think if I do this, I will benefit both my clients and myself. Then, the next assignment focused on me writing about my history as a learner, which was very interesting to think about. I think this was harder to write about. Learning is something that constantly changes, so it was really hard to come up with the best way I could write about the history of me being a learner. So, I just gave examples of how I learned, the way I best learn, what makes me nervous and excited, and what causes me tension. Some of these things, like what makes me nervous, were hard to put in to words. I know what I want to say, but it was hard for me to explain what makes me feel nervous. It was just a harder writing assignment for me to do. The next assignment was really fun and I enjoyed taking the inventory of what learning style best fits you. The inventory results expressed that I learn best by reading and writing, with which I agreed. I do learn visually, aurally, and by hands-on experience, but, ultimately, I know I learn best by reading and writing. We also had to begin to make our webliography, which is where I ran into quite a bit of trouble. I just could not get the word I wanted to use (ex. horoscope) to hyperlink. I e-mailed the class and they came up with that maybe it was because I had too many spaces and forgot my quotation mark. Then, I went back and I tried it and it still would not work for me. So, finally, I called Jennifer to help me. She said that she was able to get it to work, so, I tried what she said and I still could not get it work. I thought maybe I was pressing the wrong button and just did not pick up on it. Eventually we figured out the problem, which was that I thought that once you did the html that it would automatically highlight the word that you wanted, in my case horoscope. In order to see if it worked I had to press save. I was not doing that. I was just pressing enter to go the next line and I thought it would cause it to work. However, eventually, I was able to figure it out that, even though it was such a little problem, I thought for sure it was a big problem. Finally, when I got it posted, I was extremely happy. The last assignment for this week was to write questions that I would need to know in order to answer the question. In order to do this assignment, I needed to change my essential question. I had some problems with this because I wanted it to focus on so many things. In order to help me narrow down my question, I just wrote everything I wanted down in a list form and then was able to narrow down my question. Then I was able to do this assignment, in which I was able to still include a lot of the concepts that I wanted to target.

I really enjoyed meeting at the moo this week. I think my grouped worked really well as a group to come up with essentail questions. My group really helped me come up with my essential question.

This was a really busy week. I am a little nervous, o.k., really nervous about next week’s assignments, since they are going to deal with researching our question. I looked at the MRP and I am a bit overwhelmed. I know that it probably won’t be as bad as I think it will be and I just hope that I can find a lot of information on my research topic.

Questions: As of right now, I do not have any questions, but I sure I will have some during the week.