Good Wednesday Morning from [DOOK]

Sorry - actually was too busy yesterday to post. ALICE is very interesting, and the assignment we had yesterday took most of my free time.


This campus is really covered with beautiful stone work - buildings, retaining walls, steps, etc. It's like twenty million different levels. I'm taking lots of pictures for no reason at all with my phone, just to get ideas of architectural elements. May be doing some building in Second Life similar to these structures.


Now for the people in my class. They all seem very dedicated to education. There are about eighteen of us in here, and miraculously there appears to only be like five younger than I am. That has to be like the biggest surprise of all. I really expected to walk in here and find a room full of young teachers excited about learning this new program to share with their students. (Which makes me wonder what all those young'uns are doing.)

AND two people drove in from NEW YORK. NEW YORK (just felt like it was worthy of being repeated, let alone in all capitals). AND two people flew in from St. Louis. ST. LOUIS. And finally - one professor from NCCU. So it's really fascinating to listen to them talk about stuff. Different aspects, different ways schools are managed.

Of course I am the only librarian in the bunch, excuse me, media coordinator. Everyone else teaches computers. Or science.

And there are several student helpers here too. Some college, some high school. The thing about this is that it's very well planned out. The instructors (some of the helpers are teaching as well) all are very good at what they do, and should someone have a question, the person with the question raises their hand or calls out and one of the other helpers comes over to help instead of the instructor stopping. Wouldn't it be nice if this was how we could run stuff in real schools. Have a helper in each class to step in when the teacher was instructing to have continuous instruction and have students get help at the same time.

My biggest fear for this class was that I would be the slowest one - but not a problem. I'm middle of the pack I think.

Okay, so that's enough for now. More tomorrow.

Duke Bathrooms

Dear God - what a move for the University to make - FABULOUS -

Coated to protect against germs!

And so enters JULY

July began with a very nice Sunday spent on Baker Hill in Franklinton. Brent and I had "procured" fireworks, and he and Charlie put on an excellent show for us that night. We ate shrimp, steaks, salads, ice cream, brownies, ooo my belly hurts thinking about all the food we ate. LOL

Then I went to the beach for a day - finally - got a little burnt in spots the sunscreen didn't apparently REACH - but all in all a good day. I had forgotten how much I love swimming in the ocean. Which reminds me - if you ever go to Ft. Macon at Atlantic Beach - DO take advantage of the shower house - it's free - and you can go in, change, take a cold shower, and use the bathrooms. It makes the ride home so much more pleasant - REALLY.

That brings us up to my birthday. \o/ YAY - Who isn't excited to have survived 41 years on this planet? Very quiet birthday - lots of friends wished me a happy one, went to the big house so that my nephews, sister, parents, and old Brent could eat ice cream with me. (will post pictures of this tomorrow) Then Brent and I went out to eat and came home and that was about that - lol.

And so now I am here - at Duke University - taking a week long course in a program called Alice - and THAT is going to hopefully give me lots of fuel for posts - I already have a lovely picture (well two) to share next - and of course more info on what this whole ALICE thing is - :)

Looking sooooooooo forward to sharing.

Where did June go?

Well, sadly, I have no idea where June went. There was the end of school which took until the freaking 16th - YES - the 16th -

And then there was Mary and Neil for a little bit to distract me - call me for details . . .

Then Brent and I went to Myrtle Beach at the end of June for two days so that Brent could help Sally find a car. Toyota Camry - excellent deal - and we got to stay for free thanks to Jim and Caroline, so WOOT! (Although, and Brent will whole heartedly support me on this, we have not lost a THING in MB. Too much traffic, too much noise, too many people. We are old grumps, aren't we?)

We did stop on the way back from MB to see Todd. Brent got to see the house, and I got to see the improvements Todd has done so far - and my bathroom so far looks FABULOUS. Todd is an excellent interior decorator and contractor. LOL

So that brought us to the end of June. Sounds really easy and simple, and guess what, it was - woot.

Updates are COMING!

Well, I will have time this week to do some updates for those of you that keep checking and are tired of the calla lilies.

Tired of calla lilies? OMG! No way!?!? Who could ever get tired of GORGEOUS callas?

Okay Okay -

So expect some updates this week . . .