I started the week feeling a bit upset as we started Holy week.

• Killings in Kansas Jewish center
• Jimmy Rollins heckled by a fan at home
• Why do racists and ani-Semites kill?

It’s so difficult for me to stand idly by as Passover and Easter approach and the unthinkable happens.

I recently watch a movie on Netflix called Constantine’s Sword which really struck a cord with me. In this movie, it shows how the Roman Catholic Church and US Air Force are anti-semitic. Whether you believe the ideas presented in the movie or not, there is something to say about the amount of racism which still exists in this country. Growing up in south-central PA, I was the target of racism. I heard the “n” word more times than I want to remember. It’s a disgrace that we are still dealing with actions from an individual who was clearly known as a terrorist. Yet, in our society, it is easier to point the finger at someone in the Middle East with a different faith to be the problem.

Here are some highlights since my last reflection.

I went to the PSOCC meeting, and we didn’t get through much. There was alot of talk about students and cheating.

I attended a Badging Workshop for COIL. It wasn’t much new for me. BSB through WCLD using badges (or will be using badges). I was reminded of Ian Bogost game-based design v. gamification keynote at devlearn 2013: http://cammybean.kineo.com/2013/10/ian-bogost-devlearn-real-power-of-games.html. Hopefully, we take more game-based design over gamification.

We held a Blackboard Collaborate session held on Tues. Shout out to Kent for sharing his recording for SRA! Here is the recording from Tues: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2014-04-15.0655.M.5A39256F98948EBAB4E6FEE3D53B86.vcr&sid=105. We had a few tech difficulties to start and with someone using their home network. There was a big difference among users which may warrant separate sessions in the future.

In terms of revisions,

In 210 working on adding assessments.

In 220, we will be meeting on 5/5 with Nick to solidify course and on 5/7 with faculty in bb collaborate to provide an overview.

In 331, Lessons 00-04 sent (planned to be up to 06 by now). We are working to get things together with all of our schedules.

In EA, there was a video in 871 audio didn’t work. Brian provided a replacement after some prodding. We need oversight on adding videos that are not chunked but there is a tradeoff to the editing time when the videos will only be relevant for a short time and need to be replaced.

Things appear to be going well with students. We have too many lower-tier projects for them at this point.

This has been a difficult week. Our cat died at the age of 14 this Thursday AM. She went down quickly, and it has been difficult to accept her being gone. On the positive side, it has allowed my family to grow together. I reminded my son that it’s okay to cry. I found myself shedding many tears.

We had a busy week at home as well. Sunday was the annual Corl Street Dodgeball tournament. Tuesday and Thursday, Simeon had baseball practice. Wednesday, Dee had kickboxing. This along with the cat’s death leaves me feeling a tired.

In terms of work, I have been working on revisions and managing students to complete tasks. While things appear to be moving forward, I found things moving to Friday afternoon. There are still several items that need to be completed.

I’m hoping to have a good week next week. I’m looking forward to having Friday and Monday off to be with my family and get some rest.

It was the start of the week that we all were waiting for. The weather was mostly warm! I finally got a chance to ride my bike in to work.

MLB started this week. I have gotten spoiled with my team, the Phillies, winning. I’m hopeful but not optimistic int he team this year. Hopefully, they can surprise me this year. My oldest son’s team started on Tuesday. I’m so excited for him to have fun and get better this year.

As the week went on, we got the April showers that hopefully bring May flowers.

There was much going on with courses that are being revised like IST 220. I’m hoping to have taken care of items that will make the population of spaces efficient for Summer ’14. I also have been working on making sure that the revisions for IST 210 and 331 go well for Spring ’15 and Fall ’14 respectively.

A majority of my time has been spent with managing the student interns. We have been getting much done with fixing EA and the courses that I’m supporting for Summer ’14. All is going well there, and I’m happy to have the help that I’m getting from them. We are also working on transcriptions of videos that Larry has been making. I’m hoping to come up with a better plan for creating accessible video.