Cardinals' Nest

All assignments, tests and projects are complete - YEAH! Another semester checked off toward graduation. Wish I was heading to a beach to relax for awhile -- work is calling and family is coming over for the holidays -- I guess I'll settle for the week off after Christmas.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Enjoy your break from classes = see you next semester.

Tammy Albers

Cardinal Girls

Ashley Judd is quoted as saying,

"Sure, girls from New York, they are tough. And girls from Georgia, they are sweet. But those born and bred feisty Kentucky girls, they are the ones you have to look out for. We have sugar and fire in our blood. We can ride a horse, be a debutante, throw a left hook and tell you the entire UK line up all while making sweet tea. And if we have an opinion, you get to know it. We're both the pride and the downfall of the bluegrass..."
I think that is really clever. I don't know if she really said it, but I thought it was really clever. I decided to write my own clever little quote about Louisville girls.

"UK girls might have their wildcat blue, but UofL girls wear Cardinal red. We live for the half-court press, big east titles, elite eights, final fours, and C-A-R-D-S cheers. We're the class of the city, charm of the suburbs, and country dirt between our toes, like Churchill Downs on raceday. Sweet like home-brewed tea, sharp as a track Mint Julep, we're Louisville girls (born and raised). C-A-R-D-S! Go Cards."  - Becky O.

 

Today in Local Schools

Today, I had the opportunity to go to a local middle school and observe the use of technology and teaching of math! I love seeing inside our local schools.  They are constantly changing in fresh, new, innovative ways.
My experience today was all about math and technology. The lesson topic was scale factor.  The lesson used similar triangles and similar rectangles.  Students identified similar polygons and determined the scale factor.  The lesson also compared perimeter and areas.
What technology was used and how it was used:
There was a warm-up for students on the screen when they first came in the classroom.  The teacher used a tablet pc.  The application she used was a journal that provided light gray graph paper.  This made it really quick and easy to used "scale" because the graph was already there! The teacher also used a scientific calculator on the big screen.  The calculator, a Texas Instruments 73, was displayed about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide.  On the right side of the screen, the calculator application displayed the actual calculations.  For example: [4] x [6] = [48] .  This feature made it possible for the students to see the history and work of the TI Scientific calculator.  This is an example of modeling using technology.  The teacher modeled how to use the scientific calculator.
Students could see the scientific calculator on the big screen and observe how the teacher uses it.  The teacher could easily model how to use the calculator and it was visible to all students.   The teacher never had to face a chalkboard to write on it, leaving her back to the class.  While writing on the tablet pc, the teacher was able to face the class the entire time.  The tablet pc also made it easy to erase and rewrite.  The speed of writing on the pc made the lesson more fast-paced than writing on the board.  This left more time for meaningful instruction, discussion, and student work time.

Students were able to see similar triangles and discuss them as a class.  The teacher used questioning strategies to get students talking about the triangles.  Math discussion was about relationships and the teacher asked comprehensive questions.  In the warm-up the teacher asked if "anyone had a different reponse?"   At this point, the correct answer had already been given but she made sure to allow time for discussion and reaction.

The teacher used technology in a meaningful way.  Students were allowed to use scientific calculators but they were not dependent on them.  The technology made the teaching more fast-paced and seamless.  There was not a lot of time fumbling with books or manipulatives.  The teacher was organized and prepared for class and instruction.

When I was walking around, I could tell there was a gap in student learning.  During instruction, it seemed like everyone was "getting it".  The teacher asked if anyone had any questions in intervals of instruction and she asked if everyone was, "still with us" and "understanding".  It seemed like all the students were understanding.  However, when walking around the classroom when students were working in small groups, I could tell that there were at least five students who did not understand the assignment, even though it was aligned with the lesson that was just taught.  
I would suggest that the teacher try make the lesson more "think, pair, share," so that students are not afraid to talk about math.  The ones who did not understand were afraid to speak up or ask for help. One improvement to this lesson would be an effort to engage the students who were not understanding the lesson. I'm not exactly sure how she could do this, but I think, "think, pair, share" may be a good strategy.

- Becky O.

Fall Break (a little early)

I just returned from the Smoky Mountains....they are truly beautiful!  I went over the weekend because JCPS was out of school on Monday and Tuesday.  I WISH U of L coordinated their fall break with JCPS - it would make my life much easier.  I need to catch up on what I missed in my classes! 

-Tammy Albers

Monday on Campus

It's Homecoming Week on campus! 
Today is a really beautiful Fall day in Louisville- weather in the seventies and sunshine. I am reminded of the country song by Darrel Scott, "It's a Great Day to Be Alive."  The lyrics ring like this:

"And it's a great day to be alive, I know the sun's still shinin when I close my eyes!  There's some hard times in the neigborhood, But why can't every day be just this good?" 

If you've never given a local country music station a listen, I would recommend it.  You don't have to have an I-POD or digital music player to hear some good music; just turn on your FM dial!  To give you a larger taste of the lyrics, here's the beginning of the song:
"I got rice cooking in the microwave
Got a three day beard I don't plan to shave
And it's a goofy thing but I just gotta say
Hey I'm doing alright ...
Yeah I think I'll make me some homemade soup
Feelin pretty good and that's the truth
It's neither drink nor drug induced
No I'm just doin alright".

Happy Homecoming week UofL!

~ Becky Owens

Home Sweet Home

Hi everyone!  I hope you all are doing well!  If you didn't know already, the Office of Admissions is now back home in the Houchens Building.  As I talked about in my last blog post, we were relocated to Strickler Hall after the August 4 flooding in Louisville.  I want to thank everyone in Strickler and around the University who was so kind to us during the aftermath...  I believe I speak for everyone in Admissions when I say we appreciate your generosity, especially the Strickler/REACH folks who let us take over their offices!  :)

I'm still unpacking boxes in Houchens, but it's nice to have my own office again, although I did enjoy sharing the office in Strickler with Heather, Lindsay, Lindsay, Liz, and the students.  It is a busy time for our office, but we love it.  I work with the scholarship program, and the application is now live!  Prospective freshmen, you can apply right here.  It is also football season, and as a huge UofL football fan, I'm so excited about the "blackout" game tomorrow vs. Pitt!  GO CARDS!!!

To end, here are a few photos I took of us in Strickler/moving back to Houchens!

New Blogger

Hello Everyone,

I am excited about this opportunity to be part of the blogging team!

I am an employee of U of L as well as a student - I am working toward a BS degree in Workforce Leadership through the College of Education.  I have been married for 18 years and have two daughters 17 and 14.  I have a lot to juggle and feel like I am running a race most days.....

I love working for the university, the best part of my job is the interaction with students. --Tammy.

September 29

  Yesterday, we received news of an assault on campus.  This week is also PEACC week on campus.  PEACC stands for Program Prevention, Education, & Advocacy on Campus & in the Community.  This week is all about men and women of PEACC!!  In view of this, I wanted to post my view of the assault near the library during PEACC week.  In all respect, it could have been any of us.  Domestic and social violence because of Power happens everyday.  It is often unreported because of embarrassment or shame.  I encourage us all to be women and men of PEACC! Prevent violence.  Advocate against the assault of power.  Build campus community whenever you can!

  When we are together in preventing violence, we are together as a community!  Let's look out for eachother and encourage each other to be women and men of respect.  When we are women and men of PEACC, we will honor our school, city, and the diversity all around us.

In closing, I would like to encourage everyone to attend the volleyball game tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. against TENNESSEE at Cardinal Arena! It is in the SAC. Come support the CARDS as they knock the socks off the Vols!! Support our Cards!

~ Becky Owens

Flood '09: Here on Cardinal Island!

Hello everyone!  I'm writing this from the Office of Admissions' new/temporary home--Strickler Hall.  If you haven't been around lately, you may have missed out on the crazy flooding Louisville had on Tuesday, August 4.  Coming into work that morning, it was crazy dark.  As I approached UofL, it began to rain.  Less than an hour later, there was already awful flooding.  UofL was one of the worst hit places in the city.  As an office (half of which was in the Houchens Building's basement), we began to take as many precautions as we could, which included getting everything off of the floor, moving stuff around, and unplugging electrical cords, among other things.  The basement flooded horribly, and water even began to get upstairs as well.  More than a few of the staff members in our office lost their cars to water damage.  Thankfully for me, my car was parked in the Floyd Street garage, but there was no way to get out of our building, and as far as we knew, the roads all around campus were flooded.  As I call it, we were stranded on "Cardinal Island."

Finally, at about 1:30 PM, we received word that people were able to get out of the garage if they took a back route.  (This was about the same time boats arrived to take some people to dry land.)  We still had to go through a few feet of water from our building to the garage.  We were unable to work for a few days as officials tried to figure everything out, but the office reopened on Friday, August 7.  It's been a wild ride, but we are so thankful to UofL officials, the physical plant and contracted workers (who are working to have everything ready for school to start and to have everything ready for us to go back to our old "home"), and everyone else who has been so hospitable (especially the REACH crew in Strickler opening their offices to us to work from).

After all of that...  the show must go on!  School starts on Monday (as scheduled), and Welcome Weekend begins Thursday (I definitely recommend checking out as many activities as you can!)!

To end, I just wanted to share a few of the many pictures I took; I knew I had to get some documentation of this, because people wouldn't believe it!

Mission Adventure Camp

Camp is going very well for me. We stayed at CedarCrest in Bagdad, Ky for 3 weeks and for the other 3 weeks we've been traveling. Last week was hard, but I grew a lot about patience and understanding and hopefully I can take that and apply it to work, school, and life. One more week to go!

Signing out,

Jocelyn Yuen