The End of an Era

I can't believe our time in this program is almost done! The year and a half really flew by, and I really feel like the end is bittersweet! As much as I will be happy to be done, I will really miss seeing all of these wonderful people each week.

I really enjoyed reflecting on my blog postings from the beginning to now. I really have grown a lot, and reflecting on my posts reminded me of some really cool things I've come across and wanted to use, but had forgotten about! I'm going to take some time to revisit those. I have accomplished so much including learning about the inside of my computer and how it works, how to make my presentations SO much better, how to bring authors and experts into my room through Skype, how to facilitate my own online class, and many, many more things. It has been a whirlwind of knowledge!

The only thing I was frustrated in not knowing much about is e-portfolios. I really feel it would have been much more productive if we had learned about those in the first few months and worked on them continuously throughout the program. It was really difficult to have to go back and remember what we did in all of our classes for the first year, in order to pick artifacts for our portfolios. I would have been able to do much better on my justifications for why I chose each piece, if it had been more fresh in my mind.

This program has affected me in many ways, both professionally and personally. It has probably been the biggest accomplishment in my professional career. It has helped me gain status among my colleagues, and I have earned more respect among my peers in terms of technology. Personally, it has been tough, trying to complete this program while continuing to work full time, and be a good wife and mother. However, I really feel the time has been worth it, and it has shown my children that people can be lifelong learners, even if they're pushing 40 years old! I hope it has been a good example for them of what you can accomplish if you really put your mind to it.

CEDO 599 - Week 3

I am a little nervous about the rubric part of my project. Although I've written hundreds of rubrics throughout my career, this one seems to be giving me a little trouble. I'm really looking forward to meeting with my classmate this week to run it by her and see if I'm on the right track with it or not.

The rest of my project is going well, and I can't wait to try the SMART Response system with my students. I had to jump through a few hoops to get my tech person to install everything as quickly as I needed it, but it always help to be able to say, "I need it for my masters class, which ends on October 26th." That really got the ball rolling!

CEDO 599 - Week 1

Wow! The end of this era already! Although it's been a very long and stressful journey through this masters program, it really has gone fast! I can't believe how much I've learned in the past year and a half!

My main focus now is to get my culminating proposal tweeked. I thought I had my project exactly the way I wanted it in July, but I didn't find out until August that I was switching grade levels. This meant changing my project to fit my students. I think I've got it now....hopefully my students make the progress I want in the prescribed time with the new SMART Response technology I'll be trying! We'll see...

CEDO 565 - Week 6

Mostly my definition of leadership has been reinforced. I understand the importance of leadership, and have always tried to be a leader since I was in high school. My parents always taught me, "be a leader, not a follower". However, I think my definition of teacher leadership has changed a little bit. Although I have always tried to be a leader at my job, I have sometimes taken the stance that, "I can't do anything about that. That's just the way it is." I now believe that we can all make more of a difference than I had originally thought. The video we watched the first week with Patrick Awuah really inspired my philosophy about leadership potential. He really made me realize that everyone can make a difference, no matter how small or insignificant they think they are. I do agree with what our textbook said about improving education from within. Although certain things seem to be out of our control, like funding, we can even affect that somewhat, through being informed voters, and contacting our legislatures about school issues. I believe we can improve education from within if we all try to take some kind of leadership role in our schools, which is what I plan to do. Currently I am a teacher trainer for technology, which I will continue to do to improve technology education in my district.

CEDO 565 - Week 5

This week I spoke with my group about data that our schools collect and how it could possibly be done better. Currently, we collect data on our students through state testing, and screeners we conduct for the new RTI initiative. We have a data retreat each year, but only a few teachers are involved. The findings are shared at the first inservice of each new year, and then we collect more data to share the next fall. Even though I truly believe we all try to improve those scores that matter at the state level, there are better ways to collect data that would be more meaningful and drive our instruction better. We've recently implemented CBMs, which are Curriculum Based Measurements, which will hopefully be a better screener for our students and help us meet all of our students' needs better.

CEDO 565 - Week 4

This week I learned about school climate, environment, and morale, and how it affects teaching and learning. The school I work in now has great morale, and my colleagues and I work together very well as a team. I have worked in schools with terrible morale in the past, and it made me want to stay home from work every day. I know it affected my students, because I'm sure they could sense my unhappiness and it stunted their learning. The building of community and positive morale has to come from the leadership, and the school I was in with bad morale had very poor leadership. Our principal was not a strong leader, she did not work at building community, she pitted people against each other, and she did not support her teachers to the parents. All of these things combined made for very poor working conditions and a staff that could not work as a team or trust each other. I'm very grateful to be at the wonderful school I'm in now.

CEdO 565 - Week 3

This week I learned a lot about changes in systems and changes in thinking. I've always been a person who embraces change. I thrive on it, so I've never had a problem with new ideas or new systems. However, I have worked with several people who really dig their heals in and feel very uncomfortable with change. They are comfortable where they are at, and have no intention of changing without a fight. I really feel sorry for those people; life just keeps evolving and moving along, and they are missing it, all because of a fear of change. Everything we read and discussed this week made me think about my job. I can see the people I work with as Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millenials. I could actually picture specific people while I was reading the articles. I think these two articles (Tune In and the Beloit List) would be very helpful for all teachers and administrators to read at the beginning of each new school year, just to give them some tips on how to deal with others and just as a reminder that each generation has very different ways of viewing things. That might make for a much easier working environment for everyone.