My students are gaining 21st century skills by working on online projects, creating projects on Powerpoint and Windows Movie Maker, and communicating with their penpals around the world through e-pals.
I understand the Virtual School Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned that there may not be enough teachers certified to teach online. I do believe that this certification will help me hold onto my job, even when students are moving more and more toward online learning instead of traditional face-to-face learning. If an online teaching position opens up in my district, I am only the second person on staff who is certified to teach online.
My district's involvement in online learning includes online AP classes, and NovaNet for credit recovery. Some of the high school teachers also use Moodle and Edmodo.
During this module I was excited about learning how to teach an online course! I had never really considered how that would be before this class, and now I feel like I could be really prepared to go ahead and teach one. I can't wait!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
CEDO 550 - Week 5 Reflection
In reflecting on my teaching experiences to date, I would have to say the proportion of teacher centered versus students centered lessons has been 80/20. Although I thought I used a lot of student-centered lessons, this course has shown me how far I have to go. Hopefully as I integrate more and more technology into my curriculum, I will be able to modify my lessons to make them more student-centered.
The rubric I created clearly stated expectations and scoring so that my students could be aware of what I expected while they were working on their projects. Having a concrete scoring guide in front of them makes it easier for them to reach the expectations I have set.
While working on this module I had success with working on the differentiation piece of the lesson. I have had a lot of experience working with special ed. students in my classroom, and it's fairly easy for me to imagine what accomodations they might need to assist them with new technology.
The rubric I created clearly stated expectations and scoring so that my students could be aware of what I expected while they were working on their projects. Having a concrete scoring guide in front of them makes it easier for them to reach the expectations I have set.
While working on this module I had success with working on the differentiation piece of the lesson. I have had a lot of experience working with special ed. students in my classroom, and it's fairly easy for me to imagine what accomodations they might need to assist them with new technology.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
CEDO 550 - Week 4 Reflection
I can relate the examples of online learning to my own experience because I have used some of the sites they listed in the Online Gallery Tour. I like using online sites with my third graders, and it really motivates them to learn!
So far, I haven't had any problems navigating the discussion boards or the CMS, but I'll be sure to ask if something comes up! :)
I can imagine using Elluminate Live for a web conference in order to collaborate with teachers from other districts. In the past, when we want to learn about something another district is doing, we put in for a school vehicle and take a van full of teachers to a different school to check it out. With Elluminate, I could do a presentation for teachers in other districts to share what we've been doing with standards-based grading, SMARTBoards, or many, many other things, and we could save the cost of gas and substitutes to cover classes.
The new thing I tried while working on this module is being the facilitator! I had only done that one other time on Elluminate when I set up a vroom to do group work for this cohort. It worked marvelously and the first time I did it I really felt like I had the power! It was a lot of fun!
So far, I haven't had any problems navigating the discussion boards or the CMS, but I'll be sure to ask if something comes up! :)
I can imagine using Elluminate Live for a web conference in order to collaborate with teachers from other districts. In the past, when we want to learn about something another district is doing, we put in for a school vehicle and take a van full of teachers to a different school to check it out. With Elluminate, I could do a presentation for teachers in other districts to share what we've been doing with standards-based grading, SMARTBoards, or many, many other things, and we could save the cost of gas and substitutes to cover classes.
The new thing I tried while working on this module is being the facilitator! I had only done that one other time on Elluminate when I set up a vroom to do group work for this cohort. It worked marvelously and the first time I did it I really felt like I had the power! It was a lot of fun!
Monday, May 2, 2011
CEDO 550 - Week 3 Reflection
This week has been an interesting experience, switching my focus from student to teacher. Although I'm a teacher every day, I've been a student throughout this cohort, and I've had to really think about how to turn around and be the online teacher. I think the greatest challenge for online teachers/facilitators would be keeping up with students in such a wide area. It seems very overwhelming to me when I think of our online facilitators for this course and how they keep up with each person's blog, discussion submissions, assignment submissions, etc. I know blogs can be kept track of with RSS, but I'd love to see Ken's side of Brainhoney to see what he sees when he logs in. Is there a spreadsheet that pops up to say what each person's submitted and how many responses, or does he have to read them all and count them up as he goes? It seems like it would be really hard to keep up with, but I'd definitely like to learn more about it.
As I've been working on my threaded and web conference discussions, there are a few things I feel are really important to consider. First, it's important to consider the audience, especially when creating the rubric. I would obviously grade a third grade online class completely differently than I would a tenth grade online class. Second, I think it's really important to be prepared and have things ready ahead of time. Third, I think that first initial contact is really important in order to develop positive student rapport and classroom climate right off the bat.
I chose my topic, "Competency Based Education" because I've done a lot of work in my district this year with standards-based grading, which goes hand-in-hand with competency based education. Every day in my own classroom, I see students who are struggling to keep up because we need to move on with our curriculum before they fully understand what they've just learned. Then I see the other end of the spectrum, which is my students who are "held back" from achieving as much as they can because they already know what I'm teaching. It's up to me to create enrichment opportunities for them so they can move ahead a little faster than everyone else and not get bored. Technology would be very helpful in implementing competency based education. That way, they could move ahead at their own pace as they master each topic.
One thing I thought about when developing rubrics for the two different discussions is what I thought was important for the students to know. I tried to reflect things that we learned about when discussing synchronous and asynchronous discussion, and chose the most important things to include on the rubric. Being a teacher who likes simplicity, I also decided to grade on 5 things at 2 points each in order to simplify grading. With as many papers as I have to grade, my motto is the quicker and simpler the better!
As I've been working on my threaded and web conference discussions, there are a few things I feel are really important to consider. First, it's important to consider the audience, especially when creating the rubric. I would obviously grade a third grade online class completely differently than I would a tenth grade online class. Second, I think it's really important to be prepared and have things ready ahead of time. Third, I think that first initial contact is really important in order to develop positive student rapport and classroom climate right off the bat.
I chose my topic, "Competency Based Education" because I've done a lot of work in my district this year with standards-based grading, which goes hand-in-hand with competency based education. Every day in my own classroom, I see students who are struggling to keep up because we need to move on with our curriculum before they fully understand what they've just learned. Then I see the other end of the spectrum, which is my students who are "held back" from achieving as much as they can because they already know what I'm teaching. It's up to me to create enrichment opportunities for them so they can move ahead a little faster than everyone else and not get bored. Technology would be very helpful in implementing competency based education. That way, they could move ahead at their own pace as they master each topic.
One thing I thought about when developing rubrics for the two different discussions is what I thought was important for the students to know. I tried to reflect things that we learned about when discussing synchronous and asynchronous discussion, and chose the most important things to include on the rubric. Being a teacher who likes simplicity, I also decided to grade on 5 things at 2 points each in order to simplify grading. With as many papers as I have to grade, my motto is the quicker and simpler the better!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)