Archive for the ‘Instructor’ Category
It Only Takes a Few Hours
I don't know what it was about yesterday, but I went from only slightly busy to full out crazy busy in a matter of hours. The problem with this is that people are actually waiting on me. Oh noes!
I'm teaching again, at least for a few weeks. I'll be at The L Word sim teaching my Basic Building class. I even went the distance of updating my display. Here's a sample of how it looks:
I'd invite you all to come, but we're predicting the sim to be full. Aww, come anyway. It's Tuesdays from 5-7pm SLT.
I won't get into the rest of the list of things I've managed to get myself into…right now. I should, but I won't. I'll just leave you all wanting for more! MORE!
Another Down
That's right. I'm no longer teaching at the Shelter anymore. I liked it, but Sundays just aren't good days for me. Instead of skipping out once again, it was time to put that class to rest. I would like to pick it up again on a different day, but I haven't decided when just yet. With everything else I'm doing, I've found that I really don't have a whole lot of time to just do nothing in SL. I miss hanging out and chatting with people. I've also noticed that when I'm not busy in SL that I feel guilty about it, so I start scripting or something in the background. OCD much?
Schedule Change
I've moved my Basic Building class that I hold at NCI from Fridays to Thursday evenings at 7:30pm.
Speaking of schedules, did you know you could view the NCI schedule of events calendar?
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=b88rel0atufkk8be18j2t72rpo%40group.calendar.google.com
Now you do. Yes, you do, dangit! Don't shake your head at me. Oh no you didn't! Don't make me go over there!
Slightly More Uneasy Instructing
Yesterday was my first Slightly More Advanced Scripting class. I was a bit uneasy for this one as it was not only the first class, it was the first class where I made the curriculum. It was supposed to be the Very Basic Building class, in actuality. I was making my own curriculum for that, in fact, but my first go-round I put together was a little more advanced, at least in my mind. Seronis picked up the Tuesday slot for the Basic Scripting class, so Carl must've used his judgement and simply switched my class to match my work. Thanks again for that, Carl.
Well the class seemed to go pretty well. I haven't heard a lot of feedback from it as of yet, so I'm still a little nervous by it all. Rainbow Drake was kind enough let me know that I helped her out. I found this rather surprising as I knew she'd been writing some scripts already, but it was good to hear as that means I must've accomplished the goal on some level.
I have learned a couple of things. One I included already. 1) Don't keep extranneous touch-scripts in objects you present to the class, they're happy-clickers. 2) Make some discussion on listeners and why you shouldn't use channel 0.
Number 1 I actually fixed during the class. I had a script in an object that I'd simply forgotten about. Number 2 was a topic I'd meant to cover, but I noticed I was getting short on time and skipped over. Number 2 is an important one, so I need to work it in.
I did build my own props for this class. I think they worked fairly well. I'm now re-working the Basic Building props that I use. I'll be trying them out Sunday.
Going Advanced
I just noticed that my "Very Basic Scripting" class got upgraded to "Slightly More Advanced Scripting". No doubt because I'd mentioned that my class notes were on the advanced side, but I had meant that I need to improve, not change the class. But I'll live with the change. Makes my life a little easier anyhow. Thanks Carl for changing that. Glad I logged in to see the updated signage. 
Since we're talking advanced here. I've put in a couple of new features on the website. One displays info on the music stream currently being played. The other is using the XML-RPC functionality of SL to query the online status of certain individuals, myself included. I've now had the notion to updated it to display a more descriptive message that can be set in-world. I'll be working on that before long. This way instead of simply "online" it could say "teaching" or "hosting Building Shelter" or whatever we feel like. It at least sounds like a fun project.
Overdoing it?
As I'm writing my last entry I began to review, as I've been doing a lot of lately, my commitments within SL.
Sundays:
- 3:00 – Teach Basic Building
4:30 – Help with collections at Building Shelter(Coal has agreed to be the official helper! Yay!)
Tuesdays:
- 2:00 – Provide backup to Tateru's Basic Building Class
(not a requirement, but I do what I can)
Thursdays:
- 4:00 – Host Building Shelter
Fridays:
- 4:00 – Teach Very Basic Scripting
- 6:00 – Teach Basic Building
I love doing all that I can, but I'm starting to wonder if I've overcommitted myself. Add this that I'm a Mentor who spends a bit of time on Help Island and we rapidly run out of Mera time.
Yes, yes, I know there are plenty of hours in the day, but I do have a bit of a life outside of SL. Shocking, I know, but it's true. I received word that someone else had picked up the Basic Scripting class, so I may bail on that one. Decisions.