Yikes, I did it! For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to go to Grad School but every time I think about it, something gets in the way. This year I will be 53. Sitting here one night, the question came to me, “if not now, then when?” I love to teach. I come alive in the classroom and have a natural aptitude for it. Then along came online learning and WHAM! all the things I do so well in the classroom became difficult in the virtual world. The hardest is I can’t see the student’s faces. When that look of confusion crosses their face, I try a new tact, explain it a different way, draw picture on the whiteboard. How would I know when they don’t get it? Asking people to own their confusion only goes so far. The direction of the responsibility changes and for some students, that’s a deal breaker….It’s OK if the instructor notices, but they don’t want to admit they don’t know something. So my journey for more information about online learning lead me to a unique program at California State, East Bay. They offer a M.S. in Education, Option in Online Teaching & Learning. The program fit me like a glove! I filled out the application online, paid the application fee, had my transcripts sent from Purdue and mailed off my letter of intent to the program chair. Good advise, “if not now, then when?”
Archive for February, 2009
Linda Applies to Grad School
Thursday, February 26th, 2009David Family Cousin Network
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you.
~Kendall Hailey, The Day I Became an Autodidact
Hi Everyone,
Time has a way of ticking away quietly and quickly and before we know it, we’ve grown up, moved away, married, had children, divorced, become grandparents, grown businesses, achieved success in various forms, retired. For me, the David family is intimately woven into my childhood memories of vacations in Wisconsin and North Dakota, and family dinners all over Chicago. Wedding and Funerals, Holidays and reunions, we gathered together, drawn by our connection of family. Last spring, my husband Don and I travelled to Europe and spent some time in the Czech Republic. The stories of our grandma David came alive for me as we travelled, and a tugging at my heartstrings for reconnection with people who were such an important part of my life growing up.
If you feel anything like me and would like to reconnect, please let me know. Don and I have a personal website and I’ll post this letter on the blog there. I know I’m missing some contact information, email addresses or street addresses, for some of the cousins, so I’ll attach list of who this is going to. Please forward this on to missing or incorrect addresses and also send me contact information so I can get the list updated. For a large noisy family who so loved to get together, maybe it’s time again.
Linda David Casey lindajcasey@comcast.net