Under My Belt

This is where I'm placing Research Methods & Preparing Instructional Media--under my belt.

This Semester

...was the hump semester. Sometime during September I celebrated the half-way point of my Graduate career. But all that celebration would be worth nothing if I didn't follow through & pass my classes. So it was imperative that I complete the mission.

To be honest

I did not feel stressed about anything this semester. The concepts were familiar to me & I completed my readings in a timely manner. As a result, I have no doubt that I am capable of conducting research &/or preparing instructional media for a class.

The Result?

The final grades haven't posted to OASIS yet, but I expect my GPA for the semester to boost my overall GPA some. I've never been a strong mathematics guy, though. So I may be in for a surprise. But I doubt it.

Another semester is neatly tucked away under my belt.

By the way, if you want to check out some of my work for LIS 6303: Preparing Instructional Media you can find it at my class blog.

Preparing Instructional Media

I know my avid readers are clamoring for my latest experiences in the world of Graduate Studies in Library and Information Science. So here's a bone.

Actually, it's a web-portfolio of my projects and reflections for LIS 6303: Preparing Instructional Media. It is my final project and should be completed by the end of this week. It has all the interesting things we learned to use in a pedagogical manner like blogging, podcasting, screencasting, presentation software, social bookmarking (which includes Pinterest) and Wikis.

So there, you can't tell me I don't show you something exciting every now and then.

It's Hard to Call it Quits

A slight exaggeration, but how I feel

When to hang it up

So. It turns out I was unable to write the next great American novel during the month of November in the year 2012. I got thrown off a week ago & have not been able to recover. I plan to continue plodding through it at my own pace & definitely learned a lot about the creative process--but it wasn't to be.

I was able to push myself to creative places that I had never been before. I explored dialog & music & tension between characters that I had only heard or read of, but never wrote before. I began chapters with an intention & ended with something totally different because my main character simply had a mind of his own & thought his own thoughts or did his own thing. I was telling a story that was formed in my mind about someone totally different. It was at once completely me, yet outside of me.

This may sound strange. That would be because it is strange. I don't know if this is the normal writing process. From what I hear, everyone has their own writing process. What I do know is that I will likely not finish 50,000 words by December 1. Not when I have to write 3,700+ words per day until the end of the month to finish on time.

Back to Grad School

I have been working on school projects in addition to this creative one. I've been putting together instructional media & a full-fledged research proposal. I am enjoying it a lot. I am also pleased to report that I have been doing well in these projects & expect to finish well academically this semester.

I am well past the middle of my Grad School career & have been casting a wandering eye at my spring/summer coarse load, Fall internship & potential job market in 2014. Ahh!! 2014?!? Can't we finish 2012 first?!? I wish we could. But that's not the world we live in.

Reflections

But I am glad to pause & reflect on how far we've come. (I include my lovely wife with the we because I drag her through some interesting times with this whole graduate school thing.) I suppose that's another thing I can add to my Thanksgiving gratitude list.

So here's to life! Because it goes on.

The Christopher Jimenez Show

Listen to me, for real!

As you know, I posted a podcast which I had to do for LIS 6303: Preparing Instructional Media. I was my review of Visions of Gerard. Well, I enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to try my hand at podcasting for real. I created a profile on Spreaker which feeds into my profile on Sound Cloud which feeds into my YouTube page. So this thing is going to be everywhere, including right here when relevant and my Theology Blog when relevant.

What's it about?

Speaking of relevancy, I have decided to make this podcast as flexible & random as possible. The content is subject to my whims. Scary? Definitely. Entertaining? You be the judge. Some of the things you may find in this podcast includes:

• Theology
• Library & Information Science
• Book Reviews
• Stories about Dogs
• Poetry
• Essay readings
• Interviews
• Running recaps

If these topics are agreeable to you, follow me by clicking below

Follow in an RSS Application of your choice

Follow using iTunes

Visions of Gerard -- Podcasting, Baby!

Dive in there!

I have finally taken the plunge into the world of podcasting. We shall see how long this lasts. My first podcast has been prompted by my current class "Instructional Media-LIS 6303" & it was first posted there. I decided to refresh my previous review of Visions of Gerard for this podcast.

Enjoy!

Visions of Gerard: Podcast

(FYI, if you like what you hear, go ahead & save the file because I am not sure how long I will be able to host the audio files.)