Amanda's+Journal

My first journal entry! With the help of looking through past participants pages, I have finally decided on my final project, and I am very excited about it! I am creating an online family book club/study. I just sent out an email to my mom, dad, brother, sister, and brother-in-law telling them about my project and asking for suggestions for our first book. I hope I get responses soon, and I hope they are all willing to participate! Now I need to focus my attention on creating the forum for our book study whether that be a wiki page or blog site. It needs to be easily accessible for this to work! Does anyone here have any great faith-based book suggestions? :) Amanda 7/2/2011

Well my mom and dad emailed me back immediately saying that they were interested and excited. My brother is a bit hesitant, but seems to be agreeing to at least writing a one word response... :) No word from my sister and brother in law yet, but they are coming into town tomorrow, so I'll get a chance to talk to them in person. Still trying to figure out what book to start with and still figuring out the wikipage. I'm looking forward to my other summer class finishing up this week, so I'll have more time to focus on my project.
 * ) Amanda 7/5/2011

Oh no, I feel so neglectful towards my journal, but the week has just flown by! My sister and brother-in-law are on board to participate in my project, so that's good news! They took a while to respond, so we are voting on a book today and will hopefully get started this week. ... That is if everyone gets their book in a timely manner. I've decided to to use wikispaces for our book study, and I plan on just keeping it simple. In other news, I barbecued 170 burgers for a tournament we had at work today and I am just now noticing how much I smell like burger grease and sunscreen. Ewe. :) Amanda 7/15/11

7/15/11 **Teri's Journal Visit** **Deb's Journal Visit**

Ok, I've got my wikispace set up and a book picked out. Now everyone just needs to get the book and then we can get started! Very excited! :)Amanda 7/17/11

We had a variety of books to choose from, but the novel with the most votes ended up not being faith based, although there are some religious aspects to it. We are reading __The Catcher in the Rye__, because surprisingly nobody except my brother had the chance to read it in high school. We do realize its one of those books that everyone is supposed to have read at some point in their lives. Plus my brother is reluctant to participate, so hopefully being the most knowledgeable member of the book club will motivate him to contribute more than one word responses. I've set up a six week schedule on our wikispace. It may change depending on schedules and what not, but it's a helpful guide for now. The first week is chapters 1-4. I've created a separate page for this set of chapters and we will be interacting through the discussion section of that page. :) Amanda 7/21/11

So far, only my dad has created a profile and joined the book club wikispace. Still waiting on everyone else. I've started one discussion, but no replies yet. I've got my reading done for the week, so I'm happy about that! I'll be hanging out with my family in person tomorrow, so I'll be able to check in and see if there's anything I can do to help encourage others to get on and start contributing! :)Amanda 7/22/11

My sister and brother in law made a joint profile on wikispaces today. I kind of wish they would have each done their own, so that I would know which one of them was voicing their opinion, but maybe they will sign their name after a post. I guess I'm being picky and I should just be happy they are on there. My mom accidentally deleted my invitation to the wiki, so I just sent her another one. Still no one getting started in the discussions yet and still waiting on my brother...
 * )Amanda 7/23/11

I officially have an online book club!!! :) My mom and dad both posted on the discussion today, and it was fun to hear their views on the book. My dad listed some quotes that stuck out to him, and I found that a lot of the same ones stuck out to me, so that was interesting. My mom is enjoying the story, but wishes that the character would not say "Goddamn" so frequently. My brother, sister, and brother in law still have not posted. I'm hoping that once they make their first post, they will realize that its not so difficult and actually a lot of fun. I've already responded to all the discussions, (positive reinforcement!) and am looking forward to reading more. :)Amanda 7/24/11

There are now about a dozen posts on our first discussion page. My sister and brother in law each contributed to the discussion individually as well. My brother in law was able to connect the book to some faith themes already, so that was great! My brother still has not even made a profile, so I think its a possibility that he will end up not being involved the book club. I'll talk to him about it next time I see him. :)Amanda 7/25/11

Everyone is really liking the book so far. We are currently reading chapters 5-10. My brother is not going to be a part of this book club, because he has already read the book. I'm okay with it, I was kind of expecting that, but hoping for the best. In other news, I found out yesterday that my pregnant sister is having a girl!! Very exciting. And I guessed right! :) :)Amanda 7/28/11

I went and visited all of my classmates' journals today to see what everyone was up to. I'm looking forward to seeing all the presentations soon! I've had a busy week, so tomorrow, I plan on getting a lot done! As of right now, I feel a little confused about how this presentation thing is going to work... I've never done something like this. My book club is still truckin along. Discussions are starting for our Week 2 reading. I've still got one chapter left, before I can give my input. :)Amanda 7/30/11

Today was spent working on my session 4 response, powerpoint, and book club reading/discussions. So far, the book club is more people posting their views, and reading others. Not very much discussion. I would like to improve on this. I'm going to try and get a head start on next week's reading, so I can have some prompts ready that will encourage conversation.
 * )Amanda 7/31/11

So, I realize several of you have wanted to take a peek at the wiki. My main problem with this was that I did the 30 day free trial for the private wiki, and can't figure out how to take it off. So my wiki will be private for another 15ish days. However, I created a guest log on, so that you all can look at it. I just ask that you look, but don't touch!! I don't want to scare away my book clubbers! :) haha. Anyways, sorry this is kind of a pain, but you will have to log off of your screen name for wikispaces and log in the following: screen name: 675guest  password: bookclub

The book club will be under the favorites, and you can roam around from there. :)Amanda 8/1/11

I'm relieved that the final project presentations are finished. Feels good to get that checked off my to do list! I thought they went really well though, and it was neat to have the opportunity to thoroughly understand and appreciate all of the projects. So I've been thinking of ways to improve discussion within my book club, and I have one idea that I'm going to try out this week. Instead of always starting a discussion question myself, I'm going to have one week where all the girls have to each come up with a discussion question for everyone to answer, and then the next week both men will have to come up with a discussion question for everyone to answer. I want the power to be spread out, so that I'm not so much in charge. This is supposed to be a club, not a dictatorship!! :)Amanda 8/2/11

I completed my last assignment for the class today and took the survey! As for my bookclub, we are a little behind in our discussions right now. My dad still hasn't responded to last week's discussion, so I'm thinking about maybe changing the schedule and postponing the next one a week. I dunno. I'm not really concerned about making deadlines, I just want everyone to have fun with it. In other news, I got to go see Les Miserables with my mom tonight in Portland. We had front row seats and it was really good. :)Amanda 8/4/11