Online Curriculum Development: BDS 7-25-13

I worked on the online curriculum project for about four hours today after class. Even though I had a bunch of stuff to do (on a deadline because of a meeting with the ET@MO developer), I still tried to approach it with a sense of mindfulness. How do you navigate those situations where you are tip-toeing a fine line towards binging? I chunked it out and made sure I took care of my physical and mental comfort. Here's (sort of what I did)

1. After class: went to office. Met partner. Chatted. Wrote a bit on the syllabus. I stopped 10 minutes before we needed to leave for the meeting so I could check in to my body and maintain comfort.

2. After the (hour long) meeting, we walked back to the car together. Even though we were talking about what happened at the meeting, I tried to stay with my breath and concentrate at the same time.

3. Went home. Ate dinner. Chillaxed.

4. Started creating content once again. This was the most traditional writing time of the day, and I made sure to stay mindful of as many of the mindfulness practices as possible, including: comfort checks (every 20 mins), mindful of posture, longer breaks on the hours, time spent making notes to myself in the margins of my curriculum plan.

Online Curriculum Development: BDS 7-23-13

Today I spent an hour writing the syllabus for my online course this spring. It was an interesting writing moment because I was using Google Docs so I could collaborate with my co-developer. We started our session by planning and brainstorming and then we went about our task individually.

I was mindful of my posture and the positioning of my tongue throughout. Before I started I took a moment to gather my breath and come back into the body.

Comfort break about 30 mins in. Walked about the room. Grabbed a pop (because of thirst) and a veggie boat.

30 more minutes. Finished my sections. Waiting for co-developer to respond.

Success!

Online Curriculum Development: BDS 7-22-13

Planning: Continue working on Unit 3. Make as much progress as time allows. Make notes as to where I am when time runs out. Continue there during my next BDS later today, 

Comfort Check: My jaw was clenched (blegh) and my legs were curled back under me putting unnecessary pressure on my right knee and ankle. 

Negative Energy from class discussion has carried over. I want to apologize, and I'm planning it for the end of class, but it's taking away the focus during this BDS. Get it back Max. 

More negative energy during this comfort break. I'm having serious doubts about the project as a whole. Not that it shouldn't/won't get done, but of the efficacy, pedagogical soundness, and student-centered-ness of the whole thing. Attempting to return to comfort and fluency in 3...2...1....

Notes for whence to begin again: FIgure out Journal numbering. Decide on Beatles sources. Find library exercise. Stay calm. 

Online Curriculum Development: BDS 7-15-13

Mindfulness Practices: Being aware of the body. Feeling myself sitting. Taking stock of the sensations in my writing body parts. Brief focusing on my breathing. 

Short Planning: Begin working on Unit 3. Begin writing overviews. Be as descriptive and helpful as possible. Anticipate the obstacles/problems/confusions/dis-clarities that could arise in my students in this unit. 

15 mins:

Comfort Check: HUGE back crack. Where did that tension come from (after all the chair yoga at the beginning)? Rolled wrists. Un-focused eyes. Straightened back. Separated teeth. Tongue to lower-dental palate. 

10 mins:

Not much progress, but I think I got some good pre-writing-type stuff done. Made some connections between the different weeks that I probably wouldn't have been able to before. 

Online Curriculum Development: BDS, 7-6-2013

I only have about 15 minutes to write today, and usually I would just write this off as a lost cause and do something else. However, I'm trying real hard to get in the habit of daily writing, so I'm going to fight my better instincts and do a little somethin somethin,.

One of the mindfulness practices will be really helpful here: having a clear, attainable goal. I left one thing simmering from my session last night, and I'm going to use this time to finalize the section I started last night. All that's left is to create a Peer Review guide for the second formal paper of my online class. Peer Review is an important element of my pedagogy, and keeping it central in my online class is absolutely a priority. It's challenging, but important. 

Okay, here we go. 15 minutes. One peer review guide. Case closed. 

RESULTS:

Okay, so that was more like 35 mins. My focused went away from my work a couple of times, but I was able to bring it back quickly and keep working. I didn't take a comfort break because I was surprised by the fact that it took me longer than I thought it would. If I had planned for 35 minutes, I certainly would have stopped for a break. Now I find that my back hurts a little bit and my eyes are harder to focus. Hunched and staring is no way to be. Also, I think this took longer than expected because I didn't account for the extra steps that were required to actually publish the Peer Review sheet that I wrote. I had to log onto BB. I had to create this, edit that, rearrange the other thing, etc, etc, etc. It might have been a better estimate of my work time if I had SIMPLY completed the PR sheet and then posted it later or tomorrow. Oh well, I guess it takes practice to make and achieve goals for a BDS. Something more to work on I guess. 

Online Curriculum Development: BDS, 7-5-13

For today's BDS, I plan to continue working through the 'overview' portions of online curriculum I'm developing. I think this is a good task for my BDSs, because it takes a lot of critical thinking. However, it's not reinventing the wheel or anything like that. I've already put a lot of thought and planning into these weeks, so I definitely have a guide to go by. I'm finding myself having more fun with this type of writing, something I'll have to keep in mind in the future: if I started previously, it's easier to stay positive about the work I'm doing.

15 minutes in, I took a comfort check. I reminded myself to keep my tounge down to relive the pressure in my face. I also had to move my legs (which were propped up on the table) because one was starting to go to sleep. My laptop is warm, and my lap is warm because of it. I'm going to stand up and do some comfort walking to make the most of this break while I think about what comes next.

Got some good writing done. I wrote for about an hour. Took the one comfort check. And made mental notes of any times I felt discomfort (some in my fingers, my leg./foot started hurting again because of how I had them on the coffee table, eyes strained a bit but not bad, thirsty, ready for music, bed will be nice).

I was especially mindful of my breathing during this BDS (thanks to the UCLA breathing meditation I did earlier). It was interesting being so focused on my breathing, while still trying to use my brain to compose. It was a tricky tug of war, but I kind of like the idea of being open to a variety of senses while still having an anchor point to the here and now.

More tomorrow.

Online Curriculum Development: BDS, 7-2-13

I have a development meeting tomorrow (fancy way of saying going over to my friend M's house, chatting about the online course, and laughing for a while), so I decided to work on my online course development for my Brief Daily Session today. 

For each of our units, we have overview documents that explain what our activities, goals, and expectations are for that unit of work. We already have most of the content organized and shared, but there are many of these overview documents left to create. 

These are interesting yet difficult to write up. There's a lot of information we need to convey to students, and how to do that in a purely textual environment is a completely different experience for me. I found myself constantly deciding what would be important for students to know, and what we could expect them to learn/figure out for themselves. It's fun to keep my pedagogy hat on, but it also takes time because there's so much to think about. 

Luckily these aren't long, and I got through about 5 overview statements in the 60 minute BDS I did tonight. 

I think the fact that I have a meeting tomorrow (albeit with my friend) has contributed a little bit of stress to the process. We have very different methods for getting things done, as well as a very different methods for interpersonal communication. I'm sure it will be fine, but when my mind trailed off of the task, it was usually because I was thinking about the meeting. 

I also have the MN Twins game playing on the radio in my ear buds. There's probably something there as to why I'm distracted, but oh well. There're some sacrifices I'm not willing to make (even though they're bums).