Jamie's Journal

100 Foundations

Week 1 Aug. 1 - 7
My first week was kinda frustrating. Everyone keeps saying, "Don't Double Learn"; if you are learning new tools, use familiar tasks, and if you are learning new tasks, then use familiar tools. Well I am learning both. All of this is new to me. I catch on to things very quickly but it is a little harder learning the tools and the tasks at the same time. I have spent most of my time this week learning how to operate a little bit of GoLive and I learned how to send an attachment in FirstClass. Right now I am a little nervous on what else is left to come. All I can say is that I will try my best.

This week we mainly talked about Portfolios, the uses, types, and assessment of them. I Read Dr. Helen Barrett's thoughts on Portfolios and learned several things about portfolios.

Week 2 Aug. 7 - 14
This week was alot better, it wasn't so frustrating. I still had some Internet problems but I am trying to get all that fixed. We started school this week, well the teachers started. It was alot different trying to get all of my homework done after I had been at school from 7:30 a.m. until around 8:00 p.m. and I haven't even started coaching yet!! I am hoping that it doesn't get anymore chaotic when the students start on Monday!!

This week we did group project on impact reports. This was our first time to work online in a group and I thought it went very well. At first I was a little nervous because I didn't know how it would work not actually meeting with my group face to face. My group worked very well together and got things done very quickly. We met online at the same time everynight so that everyone would be home. One night my Internet kicked me out and wouldn't let me back in. I almost freaked out but after about 30 minutes it let me back in.

Week 3 Aug.14 - 21
This week started out kind of frustrating. I do not know that much about principles and elements of design. I took a few art classes but none taught me these principles. Both projects that we did took me an incredible amount of time. Thanks to the help of another classmate, I finally got the Design Chart done. I also struggled with knowing what buttons to use in GoLive to insert my TA examples. After reading the book and getting no where I finally asked one of my students. He answered my questions and taught me more in 30 minutes, than I had learned reading for 3 hours in book.

After completing my Art Critique Project I am very proud of myself. I am proud of my work and everything that I have accomplished this week. Since school has started and my coaching is fixing to begin, I feel that life in only going to get more complex.

Week 4 Aug 21- 28
This week went pretty well. I found that I either understood more of what I was doing or the assignments were easier. For this week we did our Representing Design images. I used a basketball for my image because I love the sport so much. I has a hard time thinking of examples for some of the elements and principles using a basketball. Putting the project together really went well. I have learned so much about Adobe GoLive in the last four weeks it is unbelievable!! It was definately frustrating at first because I knew NOTHING about it!!! There is still a ton of stuff left to learn about it, but I am proud of myself just from the stuff I learned so far.

To be honest, when classes started up four weeks ago, I was scared to death. I was thinking what in the world I have gotten myself into. I didn't think that I was going to be able to handle the class, teach, coach and actually spend a little time with my family. I will be truthful and tell you that it is hard to balance everything in my scheudle. My main moment of surprize was when my computer got kicked off of the Internet in the middle of my first project. I thought I had lost all of my information that I had been working on for hours. So I started over. Little did I know that first class automatically saves your work for you if you happen to be kicked off. I found all of my first project that I had worked so hard on a couple of days later in my mailbox. I learned a bunch from that!!

Web Authoring

Week 1 Sept. 4 - 11
This is the first week for web authoring. Some of the things that we talked about in our discussions and our interactive guides I have never heard of before. I found it a little frustrating sometimes when I do not know anything about what we are discussing (ex. cross platforms, navigation of a site). I don't know if I am already suppose to know some of this stuff or that is what I will be learning. This is my first experience in any type of web authoring class. I spent alot of time researching information that I feel like everyone else knew . I could be totally wrong, but by reading my peer's discussions they sound like they have all had a great deal of experience with web authoring. And with my lack of experience, I feel a little behind.

I am a little nervous to see what is ahead to come, but at the same time I am anxious to learn about web authoring. I have already learned a tremendous amount about web, but there is alot I don't know how to do that I hope we cover in this class.

Week 2 Sept. 11 - 18
The second week of web authoring was overwhelming. At first I did not think that I was going to survive. I worked on homework everyday this week for hours at a time. At one sitting, I was on the computer woriking on my artifact for 4 hours and 45 minutes. I thought I was going to die. Things started to blur together and I felt like my brain was fried!. In the food for thought it talked about doing a little bit everyday so that you won't get behind, I did alot everyday and I still felt like I did not have enough time.

I learned a great deal of information about web authoring through the projects that we did. Doing the HTML project helped me the most. I find that sometimes it is easier to look at the source and fix the problem than to fix it in Layout view. Also, reading my peers reports helped as well, since we could choose any topic to discuss. It seemed like everyone choose a different topic and more information was covered.

I am extremely proud of myself for finishing all the tasks that where assigned, because like I said, I didn't think I was going to make it.

Week 3 Sept. 19- 25
This week was a lot easier than last week. I still had a moment that I was very frustrated though. I was trying to get my Excel spreadsheet into a pdf format and my Adobe Acrobat 5.0 icons were not showing up. After saving it in every format possible and talking to some of my peers, I uninstalled the program and then reinstalled it. The icons finally showed up!! I just wish I would have thought about reinstalling it about two hours earlier. But once again, alot was learned from experiencing this. I have found out that when you do things the hard way that you tend to learn more or remember it for next time!!

I am working on my travel site project for Module 4. I am a little nervous about it because it is the biggest project that we have done so far and I am such a perfectionist. I am afraid that I am not going to get done all the ideas that are running through my head.

Week 4 Sept. 26 - Oct. 3
I survived!!! I honestly can't believe that I made it through this month of web authoring. I didn't find anything overly difficult, I just found it very, very time consuming. I spent more time this month working than I did sleeping! The projects were more in depth, but things at school were requiring more time as well. I think that TATC would be alot easier if I didn't have to teach my classes at the same time or if I didn't have any new subjects that I had to prepare for each night. But I made it through it and I am very proud of myself for all that I have accomplished so far. I have shown some of my collegues my travel website and they were astonished by what I did. Some of my collegues want me to show them how to make web pages so that they can post their assignment to them. Our school requires us to attend technology workshops for comp. days this year and someone had this great idea for me to teach a web authoring worksho. So it sounds like I might be hosting inservices on who to build websites! That could get interesting.

I learned a great deal while doing the password project and the travel project. I learned how to do roll-over graphics, tables within tables, links, anchors, and I even learned a little more about HTML codes. The only thing that I didn't like about the travel project was I thought I perfected it and everytime I looked at it I found something that I didn't like or something that I could make look better.  I think I could have done this forever. By the time I was almost done with my project I would learn how to do something new and want to put it on my webpage and I would do this over and over. I finally ran out of time and posted it, but there are still a thousand things that I have already thought about that I could do to it to make it better.

One main concept that I learned this week is about prioritizing. Sometimes I do not like the outcomes of doing it but I guess everything in life has an order, it is just up to you to organize it. For my week off I need to reorganize: clean my house, do the laundry and find my husband....... I think he might be buried under my clothes!!!

Digital Graphics

Week 1 Oct. 10-16
This was the first week of digital graphics and everything went pretty smoothly. I did not find anything really difficult. I have a feeling that the next couple of weeks is going to be pretty hard. I really learned alot about file formats by doing the file format project. I really didn't know the differences between all the formats until I researched them for the project that we did on file formats. Now I know why some of my pictures always looked more blurry than when I started.

Week 2 Oct. 17-23
I have just completed my second week of Digital Graphics. This week as been a fun experience. I enjoyed doing all of the projects that we had to do. I still get frustrated with myself because I see things that I want to do or fix and I just do not know how to get them like I want them. I wish that I was better at Photoshop than I am. This is an area that I really want to pursue the most. I would even like to attend additional workshops just on Photoshop because there is so much to the program. I have also created alot of interest in this field with my students. I have shown them my finished products that I have been working on throughout this course and they are totally impressed by what I have done. They can't wait untill I am certified so that they can take these classes in the years to come. I enjoy it when my students say that they can't wait to take a class. My students are a big part of what motivate me to complete my lessons. Seeing their interest encourages me to learn all that I can in this class so that I can pass it on to them in the years to come.

Week 3 Oct. 24-30
We have now completed our third week of digital graphics and animation. My how the time has flown by so quickly. This week we added our second artifact to our portfolio. For some reason I really, really do not like doing that. It seems way to time consuming especially the matrix. Right now it does not seem to serve a point, so hopefully in the long run when we pull all of this together, it will make more sense. This week we also created a very little bit of animation. We created the animation that will be included in week fours module. I really like working with animation, I just wish that I knew more about it so I could be better at it. I am hoping that I did my animation right. I am not sure if I did what they wanted me to, but I thought that all the animation I did would enhance my web page a little bit.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone's finished unit lesson plans. Just seeing bits and pieces get's my curiosity up!! I am a little bit nervous about next week because I am going out of town, because our cross country team made it to the Regional meet in Lubbock and I am one of the coaches so I will be without a computer for three days! This scares me. I am trying to get ahead but it is really hard with everything that I am doing right now. Hopefully I will have everything completed before then.

Week 4 Oct. 31- Nov. 7
Wow! I have finally finished another month of class. Time really does fly by. This was the last week of Gigital Graphics and once again I am totally impressed with how much I have learned. I learned a great deal about animation and how easy it really is to create. I wish that we had a class that focused on animation only. I feel that there is so much more to learn about it. I made small animations so that I could use them on different parts of my portfolio. I also enjoyed doing the unit lesson because not only was I doing homework for class, but I was creating an entire lesson that I can use next year in my classes. And being able to copy everyone elses lessons just helps that much more. I have shared all of these lessons, including the one that I created, to my colleauge who is our current digital graphics teacher . She is astonished by how much that I have learned in such a short period of time.

Another thing that I learned was how to change the backgrounds of my webpages. Not color but texture and patterns and all of that stuff. I have the next class off and I still have alot of work to do. I am going to use this time to work on perfecting my portfolio. I want to add more animation, and change the background of my pages, now that I know how.

This class has really been great and honestly the most fun so far. This is the area that I still want to learn more about through other workshops and classes. I would love to be a digtal graphics and animation teacher.

Desktop Publishing

Week 1 Jan. 9 - Jan. 15
This is my first week back from my very long break off. It was nice having that long of a break away from class. I really thought that I would be able to get really far ahead in some of my new classes that I teach this year, but of course I got really busy in other things. We are in the middle of district in basketball, winning of course!, Our BPA meet is coming up and the students deadlines have to be met! I feel like there is not any time!!

I thought that this weeks assignment was fairly easy. I had a hard time at the begining getting my basketballs copied from adobe photoshop to adobe pagemaker, so that was a little frustrating. But other than that everything was great. I really like creating and designing things so I am really excited about this class. I have a pretty good eye for proximity and alignment, but I know that there is alot more to learn. I look forward to learning new things and getting better at using my publishing program Adobe Pagemaker.

Week 2 Jan. 16- Jan. 22
We have now almost completed the second week of desktop publishing. I am not quite sure what to think. We did two main projects this week, a greeting card and a newsletter. For my greeting card project I did a baby shower invitation so I could send them out to our staff. I liked doing the card, it was kinda fun, the hardest part of the card for me was finding cute baby clipart. We also did the newsletter over desktop publishing information. I thought this one was rather hard. Not necessarily hard in difficulty level doing it, but hard as to making it look good. After doing mine I thought I had done a pretty good job until I looked at some of my peers work. Everyone elses looked so professionally done and mine definitely looked like a beginners job. I am also real hard on myself with projects that use creativity. I am a perfectionist, and it seems like my projects are never good enough or I can also add something to them. Even after I am done with them I will always think of ideas that I should have done instead.

I am still excited about the class and what is ahead in the future. Oh and to add to the excitement of the week, I just found out that I am pregnant with my first child!

Week 3 Jan. 23- Jan.29
We just completed the third week of Destop Publishing. I thought that everything was fairly easy except for the fact that the server was down and I thought my computer crashed. I paniced for a little while because I couldn't get my stuff that I worked on to upload to my folder and I thought I wouldn't receive any credit for it because it was late. But Monday I was okay because I was not the only one having the problem.

This week we did our reflections for standard 8 and 11. I am still not sure if I did mine right though. My mentor gave me a couple of tips and found a misspelled word, so I went back and changed a couple of things. I hope that I did what they were asking for. I am starting to work on my big project but there is soooooooo much that I still have left to learn about Desktop Publishing. I am not completely confident in this area of TA subjects at all. I will keep pushing myself to make myself better in this area.

Week 4 Jan. 30 - Feb 5
We have now completed the final week of desktop publishing. Before TATC started I was the most excited about learning desktop publishing. I really wanted to learn more about making brochures, business cards, and flyers. Now that the class is over, I would have to say that so far, I have disliked this class the most. I really don't feel that I have learned anymore about desktop publishing than I already knew. I learned a little bit about the concepts but not very much. I can look at two examples and pick out which one is better but as far as knowing if my publication is using good proximity, contrast and white space, I have no idea. I really liked the book that we used by Robin Williams, The Non-Designer's Design Book. Looking at the examples in the book and comparing them really made it easy to see how much knowing desktop publishing really makes a difference. I think that I have a pretty good eye for making things look attractive but I do not know the concepts used or sometimes why I even did what I did.

This week we finished our big unit lesson and added an artifact to our standards 7 page. I didn't find any of it really difficult, just time consuming because I am such a perfectionist. I still am not satisfied with my final product of my unit lesson. I ran out of time and I spent most of my time trying to fix my background image. I did learn how to put in a background image this week though. I am trying to find the one that I want to use throughout my entire portfolio. I still do not know how to line up my information in my webpage to make it look more attractive. I used tables and it still didn't work like I wanted. I am still working on it.

Multimedia

Week 1 Feb. 13 - 19
This is the first week of multimedia and I really don't know what to expect. I have never done very much with multimedia. In fact, Multimedia seems like a very intimidating word to me, even though I know that it means more than one type of media. I have really only done PowerPoint and added sound, that is the extent of my multimedia experience. I am nervous about the assignments to come, especially the Internet Photo Album, it is all pictured in my head but I am not sure if I can make it quite come out the way I want it to. Sometimes my eyes are bigger than my brain.

This first weeks assignments really were not that hard, most were just discussion areas so we could all work hard on our photo album.

Week 2 Feb. 20 - Feb 26
This week we finished up our BIG multimedia project. I didn't think that I was ever going to get done. There were alot of requirements for the project and most of them were easy, just time consuming. The hardest part of the project for me was finding a video. I could not find any videos that interested me and when I did, they would not play on my computer for some reason. I think that frustration was setting in. I mean, school was canceled for the past two days, I couldn't get to school because of the ice and my project was due! And in the mean time my family is out having a great time playing in the ice/snow! But all is done and I am finished now, Thank Heavens! I would have liked to have had more time on my animation, I think that I would have been able to do a better job. But I will touch it up later.

Nothing else that we did this week was difficult, but I am still a little nervous about what is to come. Next week is going to be crazy. We are going on our BPA National trip to Corpus Christi Wed, Thurs, Fri. and Sat. I hope to find time to do all of next weeks work.

Week 3 Feb. 27 - Mar. 5
This is the end of week three and I do not feel like I have learned anything yet about sound editing. I am clueless when it comes to anything about sound so this is all new to me. I have not yet finished all of my homework for this week though, so once I have done that maybe I will have a little bit better understanding of what is going on. I understand the sound editing principles but I do not really understand the the sound file formats and things related to that. I did find some helpful websites that helped a little bit with the sound formats, but I still need alot of help in that area. Maybe when I start using them and incorporating them into my projects I will understand them better.

This week has been crazy so far not in this class but in the rest of my world right now. We are getting ready to leave tommorrow for Corpus Christi for BPA and I have frantically trying to get everything done before I left because I will not have access to the Internet while I am away. I am going to spend what free time I have one my sound editing software project and my movie integration.

Video

Week 1 Mar. 20 - Mar. 26
This first week of video has been the most stressful week that I have had yet. It seemed like everything that could go wrong, did. Starting out the week late with no computer or internet access wasn't very fun. Then on top of that, we had an online group project that was very hard to do. I do not like group work, especially over the internet. The reason that I do not like doing group work is that I have a very complex schedule right now, as well as some other people do to, and it is very hard to work around several different complex schedule to get an Internet project done. After contacting my group a couple of us got started very quickly. The video and music both were done and sent to me on Tues. I had softball games until 9:00 that night and came back and worked on it until about 10:30. The audio had to be changed to a different file type and I couldn't get ahold of the person that made it b/c they do not have access to Internet at home so I had to fix the audio. The video had our word displayed in it, which I thought that the viewers were suppose to guess, so I had to fix that, because I couldn't get ahold of anyone. Well when I did that I lost part of the video so I had to add some of my own stuff to it. One group member never showed up so I had to do his part of the project, but that is okay as long as it got done. After getting it all complete, I uploaded it but I couldn't see it on my Media Player. Connie and I tried for about 45 minutes to figure it out, but we never did. She could see everything on her computer, but my Media Player kept saying it had an error. And ontop of everything I think that I offended my group memebers feelings because I didn't use all of her video. So I am glad that this week is over!!! Hopeful my group member is not to mad.

Week 2 Mar. 27 - April 2
The second week of video has gone alot better. This week we demonstrated camera concepts and techniques which I thought was kind of fun. I like pojects like that. We also are working on our music video that is due in Module 4 on April 15th. This project has really got my imagination going, I just hope that it turns out as half as good as how I see it in my mind. I have completed the Storyboard and the Management Plan which are both subject to change. I didn't really enjoy doing the Management Plan. I am not really a planner I am more of a doer. I would rather almost kill myself and get things done in a couple of days, than to complete it over a long period of time. I am not sure why I am like that, though, much harder that way. I think that was my main problem with trying to figure out when I am going to do things. Now doing the Storyboard really did help me though. After I prepared that, I knew exactly how I wanted my project to turn out or at least in my head. Now the hard part will be trying to find all the appropriate pictures and videos that I need, and complie them the way that I want them. This is kinda sad to say but one of my students are going to teach me how to capture video from a VHS tape so that I can edit it in my software program. It probably is alot easier than it sounded, but he is excited about teaching the teacher something. That's about it for week 2.

Week 3 April 3 - April 9
This week has be a little chaotic. First thing I did was really dumb of me, I forgot to flip my calendar to April last week. I was looking on the calendar for March and using the days which caused me to miss an assignment. Here I was thinking I was getting ahead last Friday when I stayed late, and I really wasn't. Thank goodness one of my students brought the calendar to my attention!! After that started my Monday off great the rest of the week went accordingly with it. It seemed like everything that was planned for this week changed! Softball games canceled and rescheduled, and rescheduled again, practices changed and changed again, the District track meet that all coaches are required to work, all happened this week which required me to move around my deadlines on project management plan. Not to fear though, I got ahead in some areas and fell behind in others. I enjoyed making the music video, but I did not find all of the videos that I wanted to use. I was trying to located President Bush's Speech where he declared war on Iraq and all of the ones that I found you had to buy, which I thought was crazy! Since I didn't find it, I had to modify that part of my storyboard with something different. To finish up the crazy week, I was working on my matrix (my eyes are still crossed) when I noticed that I had put all of my X's in the wrong box, I had put them under Artifact 10 when I wanted them to be in Artifact 15. Finally, with everything done for now, I can work on the webpage for my product. Surely next week will be an easier and better week!!

Week 4 April 10 - 17
This was the final week of video! I really, really enjoyed this class. At first I thought that I was going to hate it since my first week was so stressful. This week we finished up our huge music video project. I really didn't have a hard time creating the music video . After I had captured all of my videos and pictures the putting together part really wasn't all that hard. The hardest part that I had was finding the videos that I actually wanted to use. I wanted President Bush's speech where he declared war on Iraq and all I found it several times but you had to purchase it. I couldn't believe that you had to buy the President's speech! Since I couldn't find the speech I had to modify my project as well as my storyboard. It really wasn't any big deal. I would have liked to have had it in there but I found some pretty touching photographs to replace it.

The only part of the project that I really disliked was the project management plan. I found it really hard to put dates on things that I am going to do in the future. With my schedule I really have to be flexible, so I really can't plan to far ahead. I do not think that I met any of the deadlines on the right dates.

Overall, I think that my project looked really good. I am proud of myself for what I have accomplished in this class and the overall TATC Program so far. But I am not yet ready to quit learning!!!

Extended Desktop Publishing

Week 1 April 24 - April 30
This is the first week of extended desktop publishing. I am not sure really what to think right now. When I took the first desktop publishing class I found out that it had been my least favorite class so far, I totally forgot that there was an extended part to it. This week we really didn't do anything very hard. We had to create a newpaper ad selling ourself or something that we offered. I enjoyed doing that, because with a little tuning up, I will really use this advertisement in real life to promote my company. I am not really sure what to do about the rest of the week. I am a little confused right now on how to make a year long course outline, when I have never taught the class before. I haven't made a year long course outline for any new class that I have taught. I could make a year long course outline very easy after I have taught the class one year. I find it very hard to plan for a year in advance. I usually do 1 six weeks at a time, sometimes a semester at a time. This will also be my first computer class to teach that they do not pick up a book and teach themselves with my assistance. So I will be doing new things next week that will be challenging for me. We will see next week how I do.

Week 2 May 1 - May 7
We just wrapped up the second week of extended desktop publishing. This week we worked on pieces of our final project. We worked on our cover page which I love mine. I choose to do puzzle pieces as my graphic. The hard part was having to color each one in Photoshop!! But I really like the way it turned out. I also used the corners of the puzzle pieces to place on my calendar. I wanted to keep the same colors and theme throughout the assignment. I like the calendar as well, but I am still working on it. This week we also did our scope and sequence which I thought was a kinda difficult. After I started I got the hang of it pretty quick, but I really did not enjoy doing that.

Overall, I had a great week and enjoyed creating my projects!! I am really interested in seeing how my final project turns out.

Week 3 May 8 - May 14
This week I didn't think that we did very much. We added an artifact to our portfolio, we talked about what we thought was the most important factor to us in Desktop Publishing and we did a small project as a group. The group presentation was to create a link section that we could use in our class information publication. There were four of us in a group and we all had to choose which role we wanted to be. I was one of the writers. We all researched the internet for three sites that we wanted to include. Once everyone found their links they sent them to me and I compiled them with an introduction and passed them on to the other writer Paige Cates to proof read and make changes. We then just forwarded the page to our lead programmer. I know that I am suppose to be working on my final class publication but I have not got a chance to. Things have been so crazy around here with banquets, senior night, graduation, end of the six weeks nearing, and I don't even want to think about the finals that I will have to make. :-( I plan on getting started on the class information publication today after school and hopefully getting a bunch of it taken care of. I guess we will see next time!!

Week 4 May 15 - May 22
The final week of Extended Desktop Publishing! Yeah! This course really went be super fast. I do not know if it is because everything in life in moving super fast right now. Graduation, Senior night, end of the year requirements, inventories, next years schedules, finals and of course class! All I know is that I really enjoyed this extended desktop publishing class. After not enjoying the first class all that much, I have really changed my thinking. I have changed my thinking so much that I have requested that I teach this class next year at my high school. I know, I must be crazy right now, but I really liked doing this course and think that the students would really enjoy this class. I liked the group work that we did finding the resources, those will really come in handy when I do have my own DTP class to teach. And after all of the frustration settled, I enjoyed making the class publication information as well. I learned a ton of things about Adobe PageMaker the hard way, of course! I am much better and actually getting pretty comfortable with using the program to create publications.

All in all everything got finished and I found a new subject that I enjoy as well. Like I said earlier, I am on the down hill slide of this TATC class and time has gone by sooooo quickly!

106 Portfolio

Week 1 June 5 - June 11
My first week of Portfolio was not what I had expected. I really didn't know what to expect. All we did was add a title to what we thought was our "best work" , Reflected on three standards and refelcted on our observation experience. I am glad to get these areas out of the way! I spent a lot of time this week adding artifacts to my portfolio. I do not think that this is hard, just time consuming. I also am not 100% sure that I am doing the descriptors, and the Rationale parts right on my artifacts. I am trying to be very detailed on each one, but sometimes it is hard! I plan on adding artifacts all week so that I will not be behind in anything. I also am starting to figure out my theme for my portfolio, there are so many choices it is hard to decide.

Week 2 June 12- June 18
Well the second week of portfolio is almost complete. My how time flies! I have been working on adding artifacts to my portfolio and finishing up my matrix. I have had the hardest time adding artifacts to standards I - V. I still am not quite sure what to put for standards II & III. I have everything else pretty much done. All I have to do now is apply a theme. I wanted to get everything else done before I applied my theme and made everything look good. I am almost to that point. I need to add artifacts to standards II & III and one more to standard IX. I also need to go back and add a few indicators to some of my pages. Besides that, everything is looking pretty good and going pretty smooth. I am going to try to go to school tommorrow to start applying a theme to my web pages. I will let you know next week how it goes!

Week 3 June 19 - June 25
It is the end of the third week of portfolio and thinks are getting a little crazy. I thought I had more time to go over my portfolio with a fine comb but it doesn't appear that way. I have been working like crazy trying to get the theme applied to all of my pages. I experienced a little difficulty getting a couple of my pages to look right. To be honest they still do not look right in GoLive but they look good when I upload them and look at them in Internet Explorer. I guess that is all that really matters anyway. Time has gone by so fast, we only have one week left and I am getting nervous. I am afraid that my portfolio will not make the cut. I think that I will feel better when I get my peer and instructor's review form back.

Week 4 June 26 - July 3
The last journal entry for TATC........whatever will I do? Today I went back and read my entire journal from top to bottom. It is definitely filled with ups and downs and the struggles that I have been through the past year. At several different points I did not think that I would be here right now typing this last entry. I have had a few life changing experiences this past year that have really challenged me personally. I am so proud that I stuck out the hard times and will soon be a TATC GRAD! The personal reward is definitely worth the time and effort that it takes to complete this course. With just a few days left before the deadline I have a few refinements that I need to do on my portfolio. Other than that, we are almost complete. I can't wait to turn it and proudly present it on presentation day!