My newest piece of lace

A new pattern I'm working on - it's a reproduction of a 16th century pattern done in 80/2 bleached linen. A few mistakes - but this IS my test piece, and the first time I worked the pattern.

Google Talk Email

Hi - for anyone interested - my Google Talk email address is dicellini@gmail.com!

Thoughts on Sound

Well, several weeks of playing with podcasts and various audio programs have left me hiding in a corner. Actually, it's just been a series of frustrations - nothing works, then you get the first part to work, get all excited, and then the second part doesn't work. Try again, and parts one and two work, all excited, and part three doesn't work. Sigh. But what I have been able to do with it is interesting and shows promise. The telephone recording was the easiest and worked with the least amount of problems. The rest will require more practice, although I was able to hear my sound bites. I do think they will have some promise as items to incorporate into my first-year online courses - I just have a feeling that students, especially newer students, might feel more comfortable hearing some instructions as opposed to just reading them. I'll have to see...

I listened to the podcasts of several classmates, and found them very interesting. They ranged from simple tests to longer, more complex "lecture"-type presentations from folks who obviously understood things better than I did! In particular, I enjoyed John Rausch's presentation of the one-word icebreaker. It gave me an idea of how I could adapt that to an online class. Thank you!

Just when I thought I figured it out -

So I've been going along feeling pretty good about myself - even though I'm not young anymore, I was navigating all the newfangled technology relatively well - until I smashed right into a geekspeak wall. Working with some new programs has left me feeling like I'm sitting to the side trying to keep up while writing with a quill pen. Hopefully it will all click, because it will be very difficult to incorporate work I don't understand and ask students to be able to do it!

Lace Note - had a chance to sit-n-lace for a couple of hours this weekend. Got about 2" of the new pattern finished. It's looking pretty good, but I can see all the flaws - I just keep telling myself that's what practice pieces are for! I'll try to post a picture of it soon -

Another Day -

A pretty exhausting day, emotionally, interacting with family and a funeral - finished up with a massive grading backlog. Oh, how I wish I taught a class that could use scantron tests for evaluation, rather than essays - and more essays - and more essays! But despite the circumstances it was great to see family, especially my daughter who made it down for two days.

Being the student rather than the teacher is a switch - and kind of fun - although I'm surprised at how easily I revert to the student mindset. It helps me to understand how easy it is for my students to put assignments off to the last minute, then rush to try to get things finished. But although I can understand how easy it is to procrastinate, I can also see how important it is to stay pretty firm about deadlines. Exceptions could really make things spiral out of control quickly! So, like my parents used to say when I was a kid, it's really for their own good - although I doubt they'd believe that!

Just to keep touch with the ultimate goal of this blog, here's a fuzzy picture of me making lace -

In The Beginning

I have always avoided blogging - I was afraid it would be one more thing that I would start and just not have the time to continue with. Hopefully, that won't be the case here.

This blog was created as part of a class I am taking - after the class is over, I hope to use it to track my lacemaking (hence the title).

Wish me luck!

Kathy