April Monthly Summary

Beranda commented on:  
Angie commented on:  Groups 1 & 3

Beranda's Monthly Summary:

April was an exciting month. Together, Angela and I put together our final project (Toolbox for Community Educators). I was lucky to have her (Angela) as a partner this semester. I feel that we worked well together and did our best to come up with interesting and informative assignments. Next month I look forward to a relaxing break before another semester starts :).


Angie's Monthly Summary:

April went by so fast it caught me off guard. We completed the toolbox for community educators. Beranda made a wonderful website and I wrote the summary paper.  Like all of our projects this semester, this was a very relaxed and cooperative endeavor.  We really did work well consistently together all semester.  This was a great way to end my graduate studies.  Next month, I look forward to finding a house and preparing to teach for the first time in the fall.  Best wishes and a happy summer to everyone!

Audio/Visual Project Introduction and Survival Memo

Beranda commented on:
Angie commented on:  Group 2 (Stacey) and Group 5.

Beranda and Angie each did their own introductions and survival memos.

March Monthly Summary

Angie commented on: Group 2 and Group 5
Beranda commented on: Group 2 and Group 5

Angie wrote this month's summary because Beranda updated everyone about last month.

We've been working diligently in the month of March to produce a few different papers and tables.  Our group communication has continued to be good.  This may be the best group (partnership) I've ever been part of, especially for an online course.  Our group's focus from the beginning has been on domestic violence.  Our endeavors have revealed different connections.  For example, most of the organizations and partnerships we focused on that work to end domestic violence also work to end other bad things.  These groups also focus on sexual assault, child abuse, and substance abuse prevention.  Other programs and partnerships provide mental health services and resources to empower single mothers.  Collectively, all of our analysis of community programs, services, and partnerships shows how organizers are motivated by the interconnectedness of many different issues as they relate to domestic violence.  Domestic violence does not exist in a vacuum.  Other factors contribute to it.  It causes other problems in individuals, families, and society.

For our community education programs paper, we focused on the community of Austin, Texas.  We profiled the Austin Public Libraries, YMCA, and the Jeremiah Program.  For our community partnerships assignment, we did case studies of the Dawn Project in Indianapolis and On Track Recovery of Oregon.  These activities have helped us contextualize domestic violence prevention efforts and how real organizations and partnerships have been working for community education and social change.

Next month, we'll be finishing up our project as well as the semester.  First up is the toolbox for community educators.  We'll also be creating an A/V introduction for our project.  I know that we're all ready to be done with the semester.  It will also be nice when we know for sure that spring weather is here for the long haul.  Good luck, everyone, and keep up the good work!

February Monthly Summary

Beranda commented on: Group 2 and Group 5
Angie commented on: Group 1 and Group 5

February was a month of getting to know each other. Angie and I communicated pretty well using e-mail as our preferred method. We started off February working on the Community-Based Learning/Service Learning assignment. We each did a case study and then chose another part of the paper to complete (Beranda did the intro, while Angie did the discussion). It seems as though we are doing well with "sharing the load" when it comes to the assignments. Since Angie did a monthly summary for January, I took on doing our February monthly summary. I did overlook submitting our Community-Based Learning/Service Learning assignment to Blackboard, but thanks to Angie and Bo I corrected this mistake!

We did lose a member of our group this month due to some personal problems, but we are wishing her the best!

For March, Angie and I are looking forward to completing the next two assignments. For the first, Community Education Programs, we have already decided what town to focus on. As for the second project due in March, Community Partnership, we will start working on it as soon as we are finished with the first.

I am looking forward to another month of great communication in Group 4!

--Beranda

January Monthly Summary

Angie commented on groups 2 and 5.
Beranda commented on:

This month, the two of us started to come together as a group.  We were supposed to have a third member, but we have not heard from her and she did not participate in the last assignment.  The two of us, Beranda and Angie, have been cooperating really well to complete the activities so far.

Before we put together the community educator paper individually, there was communication and preparation work that needed to happen.  Angie emailed the group as it was assigned to see who was interested in creating the blog for our group project.  Beranda volunteered to create the blog site, and did a very good job choosing the layout and design of our blog.

Once the blog was in place, we both wrote our community educator papers.  This involved exploring the idea of community and community educators by each interviewing a community educator and connecting the findings to the literature on the topic.  This was a valuable exercise because it gave us individual examples of real life community educators and the work that the do.

We are currently trying to decide what our overall topic will be.  There will be more progress in the next month.