I love my family

Christmas time is my favorite time of the year. In particular, I love being at my grandmother's house with my very large and loud Panamanian family. I love everything about this house... the way it smells when I walk in the door, the clocks that all tell different times, my grandmother's semi-broken English and hilarious conversations with her, the painting she made of my grandfather when he was young and they first got married, his old old old suede chair... there is so much history in this house. They moved in in 1961, when my father was 9 years old. This is the only house I've ever known and associated with my family.

I see my cousins growing up in this house around the holidays and it makes me a little sad knowing that they won't get to know the grandfather I knew... sneaking us Circus Peanuts before dinner, pouring milk for our cereal, yelling at us if we came down the stairs and didn't use the handrail, giving us batteries from his old office desk for our new presents on Christmas morning. But such is life. It goes on with or without you.



Despite enjoying my holiday season with my grandmother, 8 aunts and uncles, 20+ cousins, and my M&D and sister (although she had to work on Christmas Day booo), I am MORE than ready to come home to Ann Arbor. I need to be back in my apartment and my bed and my kitchen and my bathroom and all of that. I need to get back to reality.

I've accomplished very little work during the break, which is bad, because I am teaching on the 3rd and have NO idea what my lesson plan will entail.

Dear God, please let me find a good(?) movie about Darfur to show. Thanks. Love, Caroline.

It's almost 2008...

Well, the semester is finally coming to a close... everything has gone so quickly and so slowly at the same time, if that even makes sense or is possible. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family and spending some time RELAXING. And, of course, working on a school project...

I get to spend my break planning a 2 week PODCASTING unit!!! Yes, I am excited about it. :)

The final project in TG's IR class will be podcasting... wahhh! I think everyone knows how excited I am about podcasting by this time :) Here is my plan so far:

- Introduce podcasting/Gabcast
- Lay down my expectations and requirements for the assignment, which are as follows:
+ Students will be researching a topic individually and later in groups. Topics are forthcoming but include nuclear proliferation, war crimes/torture, climate change/global sustainability, genocide... if anyone has more ideas, please let me know :)
+ After students have completed research on their own, they will be put in groups of 3-4 to create a podcast about their common topic
+ Students will also be individually writing a paper on their topic, expressing reasons why nations either support or do not support that particular action (ex: proliferating nuclear weapons, approving torture of POWs)
+ Podcasts should address the two sides and state the group's opinion on their topic.

I still have to:
+ decide on all the topics
+ finalize requirements for the paper and the podcast
+ create my own example and figure out how I'm going to introduce the unit
+ decide how I want to grade this project

I am so excited to get this unit going... my kids are already really pumped at the thought of creating their own podcasts (with cell phones, no less). Hopefully everything works out! :D

Have a great break everyone... be happy and healthy!! See you all in 2008!

Generational Technology

I remember the days when we were learning so many things about life from our parents. I still learn a ton from mine (we just had an hour-long conversation about budgeting and loan money -- everyone's favorite subject), but I'm noticing more and more how I am helping bring them more into the 21st century of technology, thanks to Ed 504.

This Christmas, I created a Steer Family Christmas Wish List Wiki. Yes, folks. A wiki wishlist for my huge extended family. Check out what I asked for. This wiki has been well received by some members of my family, and not so well received (or received at all) from others, which is to be expected. But I think the most exciting thing about it was that a) I got to teach my family a really cool tool that I learned about in school (woah lots of rhyming), and b) it got my grandmother on the internet (she's normally terrified of it).

Then, after my money talk with M&D tonight, I told my dad about my adventures in podcasting and introduced him to Gabcast. Interesting, since my dad introduced me to downloadable podcasts a few months ago. He told me that he's been trying to find a more efficient (read: "cooler") way to communicate with overseas clients than regular email. I think he's in his office creating a Gabcast account as I type this entry.
Love it. Love my fam. Can't wait for X-mas. :) Back to my psych paper. :(

Podcasting!!!

Gabcast! Caroline & Justin Scavenger Hunt #2