We Made It!

Congratulations to all for successfully getting our binder finished and to Dr. Abed last Friday. At least at first glance he seemed very impressed with the work we have done, and he continues to be very positive about the project as a whole.

We are tentatively scheduled to meet with him on Friday the 19th to go over his comments, and then the really fun work begins of making the binder plan a reality. Are there times that people are or are not available on the 19th? Just let me know what would work best for each of you.

Thank you both again for all of your hard work and time. I think we have a lot to be proud of, and I know our final product will be one that will be worth all of the work and hours.

David (M)

The Final Stretch

Greetings!

Thank you both for what I think was a very productive meeting yesterday. I think that the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel is truly in sight now. As we head towards Sunday's 3:00 meeting at my place, goals I think we should have in mind are:

1) Project schedule document - I just spent a few minutes working on the programming section of the document and it really didn't take very long. I went ahead and put in yellow boxes for a monthly team review meeting to happen one week before each of our meetings with Dr. Abed. I figured that would give us a chance to touch base and review any work in progress before running it by him. If you guys could fill in your respective sections at some point before Sunday, that would be great, and would be one more item to cross off the list.

2) "Detailed Sketches" (David S.) - Program interface, Print and CD looks for the binder. Also, if you could whip up a DaDaLi logo image that I could plug into the database that would be great, so that I could start printing final copies of the level three for the binder.

3) The dreaded Scripts! - I am going to do my best to get Silvia at the meeting Sunday. There are scripts remaining that I think we can handle like we did at Tuesday's meeting, but even looking over what they have sent us for some of the case study stuff - we need some explanation and clarification to continue. The bottom line is that we currently have 60 out of about 140 scripts complete, and I should be able to hack out about another 20-25 of the remaining ones that are more "technical" in nature. The remaining 55 or so really constitute all that we have left on the project prior to the 5th.

I think that is pretty much it for now. Thank you Lisa for completing the critique write-up, and thank you both for being the best team in the class! I will see you guys on Sunday.

P.S. - my address is 229 West Center Street, Southington, 06489. If you Mapquest it, just know that you will have to turn on to Raynor Street to get to our driveway (we are on the corner). We are the first driveway on the right - grey cape with green trim.

Pax - David (M)

Friday Update

Greetings all!

I just wanted to post a quick update on progress as we head towards Saturday's meeting.

1) Level III database: we now have something just over 100 pages "done" in the database (about 1/3 of the total). This means that all of the basic info is in there for those pages. Most of what I have worked on are the more "mechanical" pages, as opposed to content pages. These done pages still need thumbnail sketches and many still need scripts.

2) Level II flowchart: I think this is almost set to publish. I have a couple of questions that I want to bring up at tomorrow's meeting, but I think I have cleaned most things up from our meeting with Dr. Abed last Tuesday.

3) Meeting tomorrow: It seems like the best thing for us to focus on tomorrow is anything that is scripted content in the Big 5+1 part of the program. This includes nailing down the questions in each area, and covering tutorial content for each question and introductory stuff for each of the Big 5. Silvia should be able to be there, though I did hear from Marcie today that she is unavailable.

4) Critique: I will TRY to have my rubric sheet completed for tomorrow about the anorexia program. Would one of you be willing to write up our group commentary?

I am trying to set as a rough goal that for this Tuesday's class we pretty much have everything done for the introductory and Big 5+1 parts of the program. That way we can concentrate the last couple of weeks on the second half of the program in time to submit everything on the 5th. What do you guys think?

I will see you all tomorrow at 1:30 at David S's place!

David (M)

The final stretch:

Well, I know we have all sort of let this blog drift for the past several weeks, but I thought I would get a post up just to keep it going and current. I will probably be a few minutes late to class this afternoon due to a rehearsal here at school that I need to get started. I have been very encouraged by our progress the last couple of weeks and the results of our meetings with Silvia. Based on our last meeting, I have updated the level 2 flowchart for us to look at this evening with Dr. Abed. I think all of the major pieces are now at least in there in draft form. Still left on our to-do list for the last 2 weeks is:

• Level three (database) write-ups
• Gantt chart for summer production schedule
• Updated versions of project proposal and design plan to reflect recent changes
• Review of the Anorexia project

Lets talk this evening about how to split up these items among ourselves for the most efficient use of our time.

I continue to feel good (if not a bit overwhelmed) with the project and with our group, and I know we will turn in an exceptional product at the end of it all.

Thank you!

I agree!

I agree! I think that the meeting went well and was successful. It was helpful to me to have everything (literally) laid out on the table...and Silvia and Marcy definitely seemed enthusiastic with what we are able to offer them.

Dave-I love the title-Your Personal Reading Specialist...I reviewed the document and made some minor adjustments, but I think that it looks great. It hit all the sections we were discussing with Silvia and Marcy. Any feedback from them regarding this document?

Hope you had a nice weekend!

Good Vibes!

Hey all!

I just wanted to follow up last evening's meeting with a post while things are still fresh in my mind. First of all, I think the meeting went great! I had visions of getting to the meeting and finding out we were all on completely different pages, and that was obviously not the case. I think some rather significant adjustments happened to our plan, but nothing that is going to sink the basic idea, and the end result, I feel, is going to be an even stronger project than our first thoughts.

I will work over the next couple of days to update our design plan proposal - with an eye to the document that we need to submit in 2 weeks - and I will be sure to share that through Google for your comments and revisions. If either of you have thoughts that you would like to share coming out of the meeting, please feel free to post them here so we can get those hashed out as well.

What is everyone's thought as far as an extra meeting this week? I could swing something Saturday early afternoon, though I have to be up at school by 4:00 to set up for an evening concert. I would even offer to host, if folks don't mind a friendly dog... If you both think it would be useful, just let me know. I will be gone the following weekend in Maine, but could maybe do something earlier in the week (week of 3/30-4/4).

I am stoked!

Dave (M)

Next Steps

Greetings all,

After the flurry of the first few weeks, I realized I hadn't posted here in a while, so here is a quick update. I had another round of contacts with Silvia, mostly discussing possibilities for a group meeting in the near future. The number one option, if it works for us, would be to meet after next week's (the 24th) class, at the 6:30 time when Dr. Abed is finished lecturing. Would you two be able stay a bit later next week? Both Silvia and Marcie (the reading specialist) would be available to meet at that time.

Silvia also forwarded a URL for a website that has all kinds of reference materials for "The Big 5". that address is:

http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/effectivereadingcomponents.asp

A lot of material there for browsing - I just started poking around a bit.

Those are the big updates for now. I think we should talk a bit this week about media and instructional strategies - perhaps exploring the Case Study option a bit more - so that we could have a structural design proposal for the meeting with Silvia.

See you guys in a bit!