Monthly Summaries

FEBRUARY MONTHLY SUMMARY 

Katie commented on: Group 1 and Group 2

Antonette commented on: Group 1 and Group 2

Katie Ferguson

This month in class has been all about defining adult education and the key players that made adult education what it is today. We have been reading articles, our class assigned book, as well as researching topics related to adult education. We successfully wrote two papers. The first paper was about the history of adult education by decade. This paper was a sort of a struggle for me. I couldn’t decide what decade to choose because I wanted to make sure that I chose a decade with a lot of information. I researched both the 1930’s and the 1950’s, but ultimately chose the 1930’s. I enjoyed learning about how adult education grew from the context and historical events that took place in the 1930’s. Also, in my 10^thgrade English class, I had students reading To Kill A Mockinbird, so I was already familiar with historical events of that time. The second paper, Antonette and I wrote together about influential adult educators. She chose W.E.B. DuBois and I chose Jane Addams. Antonette and I worked well together, and our papers meshed nicely. So far, we have had no problems with communication or group work!

Antonette Payne

As Katie mentioned above we have done a lot of reading about adult education and educators.  We have only submitted one paper together so far on the blog and it went well. We both chose one educator to address. Katie then took my portion, merged it with hers and created the final product. I think there has been good communication between the two of us. For the next assignment, we are splitting the work a little differently. I am doing the first half of the assignment on both organizations and Katie will complete the second half. We will see how this goes and determine the best approach for working on projects together.  

MARCH MONTHLY SUMMARY 

Katie commented on: Group 1 & 2 

Antonette commented on: Group 4 & 5

Antonette Payne

This the second monthly summary for this class. I found it interesting to read about others' experiences with the group projects, the challenges in the beginning with changing group members, and the organization and dividing of projects. Now that everyone has settled into their groups it will be interesting to see how this has changed the groups' process in organizing projects.

           For me this month was a little hectic. I did not utilize the calendar function in Blackboard and at times came close to missing deadlines because of it. I also struggled to keep up with some of the reading as other classes that I am taking also became busy. I seem to have it under control for now and hope so going forward.

           As for the group work this month, we began to work on the Important Adult Education Organizations Assignment. After discussing it, we decide that Katie would pick the two organizations and write about the Roles, Responsibilities, and Missions of the groups. I would then be responsible for the "Discussion" section on the impact and implications of these groups. We also decided Katie would complete her portion by March 25, 2014 and that I would submit the assignment on April 1, 2014. I was glad I was not responsible for completing the first task as I got the flu during that first week and could not get out of bed for several days. I am currently finishing it up the paper and am having some difficulty concentrating as my work is on spring break and I took my daughter out of town for her birthday. I guess it is an illustration of the some of the difficulties of being an adult learner.

Katie Ferguson

                This month has also been exciting and busy for me! My sister will be induced tomorrow and I will get to meet my new nephew! I can’t hardly wait!

                Class work this month has consisted of readings, papers, and commenting on classmates blogs. I was really pleased with our first paper of the month on the Adult and Community Programs. At first, it seemed logical for each of us to research a program and then combine later. But the specifics of the paper asked that we write about the programs and then compare/contrast. So, instead of making one person do more work than the other, we decided to have one person find the programs and complete the summary and the other do the compare/contrast! I have to applaud Antonette’s work on this paper. She chose the two programs and then even went further and had bulleted lists of comparisons/contrasts that she noted! It was awesome to have a group member who was so willing to go above and beyond. J

                We just completed our second paper, which I hope will be as successful as the last. We also will be updating our blog tonight!

APRIL MONTHLY SUMMARY 

Katie commented on: Groups 1 & 4

Antonette commented on:  Group 1 & 2

Katie's Summary

In our course this month, we have been busy! First, the Adult and Community Organizations paper was due on the first of the month. The work for this paper was easy to divide. Antonette and I, again, relied on email as our main form of communication. After this paper, we began to discuss how to create our E-Archive. She volunteered to write the one page summary and I began to design the website. I had used Wix before with the kids at school to create a school web page. I actually learned from them how to use it! It is a fairly user-friendly program that is free and the sites look great. I had the hardest time deciding what layout to choose and how to alter it to fit our needs. My main struggle again this month was time. I started working a second job a J Crew in Edinburgh, teaching SAT Prep course, and my grandfather has been in and out of the hospital. I’m learning quickly how to say no to extra things so I am not overwhelmed.  I also struggled to keep up on weekly online discussions and blog posts this month. I found myself falling behind due to over committing myself to these other duties. I have a new respect for people who work two jobs and raise kids! I don’t know how they do it! The end of the course consisted of my reflection paper and the intro to the project. I used Jing again (which I now love) as the video intro so I could highlight areas of the blog as I spoke! This is a great way to showcase our work!

Antonette's Summary

This month, we started the month with the important adult and community education organizations paper. Katie picked the organizations and I did the comparisons and implications. I had never heard of either organization prior to the assignment so it was interesting to learn about organizations that were helping adult learners.  

We concluded the project creating an archive of all of the previous assignments. I found this month a little less hectic than the previous month. Although there were still plenty of assignments, they did not seem as time consuming and it also helped to have a couple weeks without online discussions. I leaned heavily on Katie’s technical skills in creating a website for our archive. I created the one page summary of the previous projects and added pictures and bios to the information that I had provided on those previous projects. I found this project to be helpful for me in learning new platforms (Blogger and Wix), as well as, giving me new ideas to include in my own classroom (my students will be doing a blog). I have also found it helpful to see the projects that the other groups have produced as they displayed new ways to present the same material.