I miss these kiddos of mine when I am at class every Tuesday...that's my first thought.  :)  Today was my dear friend Amy's birthday and we had cake.  (That made class tonight totally worth it!) 

 I enjoyed making the presentation about myself.  I think I did alright.  I did a Powerpoint and made 9 slides.  I found pics, dragged them to my desktop and then inserted them.  I wonder if there is a better, more efficient way? I would love for my 2nd graders to do a simple one. Is that a crazy idea? They would love it! It was entertaining to see everyones, as they were all so different.  I like that!  

We heard lots about our thematic unit and the components of it.  I am still kicking around a few ideas, but think I am going to tie it into Reading Street.  It sounds like a lot of work, but I look forward to the outcome of it!  

Today we saw our first presentations of different groups.  WOW!  We heard a lot of information.  There were 9 models presented. Some were like greek to me, and others I understood.I liked the "Backwards Design", which I think all good teachers do most of the time without even thinking about it. The super easy way to remember this model is "Teaching with the end in mind." Kelly's Rapid Prototyping presentation had me "Rapidly" getting confused! :)  
My group studied the Kirkpatrick model. I liked working with my 3 colleagues, and it was pretty meaningful. The Kirkpatrick model is for different types of evaluation.  It was fairly simple, yet some aspects of it seemed more geared toward the business world.   

Cause if you don't, you will be LOST.  You can also be fortunate to sit by someone who can help.  There are some cool things going on, but it moves fast, and frustration level can escalate fast.  It's happening RIGHT now to Amy!  Star Wars music would be appropriate at this time.  Moving at light speed baby!  Setting up the blogs was really fun tonight.  I will definitely explore more throughout the week to become more confident and proficient.