This is My Child Life

Yassssss! The first semeseter of graduate school is a wrap! I feel like this may be a little braggy but for those who kicked it with me undergrad know that the fact that I made my first 4.0 in my life is a big deal. I know!! I can't believe how much I love it. I actually learned something and can't wait to get back to it in August. Plans are in full swing to finish up next May. I'll take 3 classes (2 / 8 week classes and 1 /16 week class) in the fall. Then in the spring I'll take another 3 classes and an internship. I feel like Robert DeNiro in the "The Intern", oldest intern ever! Fingers crossed I can land something and that my fellow co-horts will understand and appreciate my 80s references! In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my summer with the girls and Ry. Happy Summer y'all!

I've nearly survived the first semester of graduate school and I can't believe how much I love it. I have learned and absorbed so much. What surprises me though is how well I WANT to do. I have nothing less than 100%. If you knew me undergrad you'd likely be laughing right now. What a difference 20 years makes! I completed my Web Development class a few weeks ago and boy was that a challenge. My final project turned out pretty good. I would still love to tweek some things but for the most part, I am proud of the finished product. Check it out here:  http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kmbk3f/ISLT7360/finalproject/beckler_project.html I am wrapping up my digital media class. That class has been a blast. I'm finding I love making videos, working on photoshop and the final portfolio which was also a website. I am still working out the website/portfolio but this is what I have so far and you can see some of my project highlights in the class. Check it out here:  http://bengal...

Do you know I actually remember meeting you in Kindergarten? We were reading together in the hall when I volunteered one day. I thought to myself, "this little girl is so cute....and so quiet, what a sweet thing." I also remember in 2nd grade when Steph said to me, "Mommy, I've been playing with Bella a little bit, she's really fun. Can we have a playdate sometime?" I loved your friendship with Steph. You had your circle of friends and she had her circle of friends. It just seemed that once in a blue moon whenever she needed a break from the circle you found each other. With that, a very sweet and special friendship took shape. Steph was never scared when she found out you had Leukemia. Honestly I wasn't either. I thought, It's ALL, totally curable.  It'll be a long road, but there is a finish line. Because of my experience as a Child Life Specialist, I jumped in there. Spoke with your teacher to the class with confidence that there was a PLAN,...

Last week was almost a balance fail. Kids were out of school for ski week, although we didn't ski. We slept in and hung out and I did 2 projects for school and worked my job. Finding time to work on school was no small feat, but I did it.  For Digital Media this week we were working on Digital Audio. This was so hard for me. I have an appreciation for music, but have never worked on anything with sound before. We had to use a sound mixing program called Audacity and after watching approximately 1000 tutorials I made a promo for world thinking day for the Girl Scouts. My daughter was my narrator (spending time with kid during break-check). I think it turned out OK.  check check, 1, 2...... http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kmbk3f/ISLT7361/Unit3/beckler_digitalaudio.mp3 Then the biggie project was the pilot for my website. I must say I think it's coming along. It's still under construction, but I'm really proud that I have hand coded this all by myself and it...

When my children were learning to ride bikes my husband used to say to them, “you have to fall down at least 100 times before you really learn to ride.” I am learning quickly the same goes for Photoshop. I fell down many times with the Photoshop program.  So much that getting up and shaking it off almost became me throwing my computer out the window! My biggest issue was text/type, which from what I understand is an art of it’s own. I accidentally rasterized my text (made it into a picture) so had to start over which was challenging as I didn’t realize the mistake for some time. It took me texting a graphic artist friend for an hour then just taking my laptop to school drop off so she could actually show me what to do to fix the issue.  Although frustrating at times, once I got going I started to enjoy putting the puzzle together. I also enjoyed creating my own image with the tools I had learned about in the lesson as well as a few I figured out by watching tutorials...

BOOM! I just coded what I learned this week....(drop mic).

http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kmbk3f/ISLT7360/lesson1/ Read it and weep.....2 loooooong days..... what is it you ask? I know, I know there is nothing there. Well that's step 2. I'll deal with that on Friday. I found myself in a state of panic when the instructions weren't clear. To me it read: downloadthehttpfilewhichisabengalpagebutnotbengelwithanebutwithanaandthentheurlfileandthenmakeafolderbutwewonttellyouhowtomakethefolderortheurlyouwillneedtojustfigurethatoutonyourownandwellgoodluck. On day 2 at 11:30 PM when I was at the end of my rope and planning a conference call with the graduate assistant for the next day. I decided to go through the modules again and low and behold there was a video with detailed instructions (I swear it wasn't there before) to: Create a space in the Bengal server to store all of your work. Apparently my work will be for all to see on the web. It's not searchable, can't find it on google, but with the URL you can see it all. Th...