599: Post 3

My culminating project is finished, and this is the final post that I am required to complete for my master's program. Looking back, I am still amazed at how much I learned in the last year and a half. And, I really loved that so much of what we learned in class could be implemented in our classrooms that same week.

I had coffee with a friend this morning, during which time I told him that I was almost done with school. He reminded me of my decision to apply to this program. There were so many programs to choose from. And, to be honest, the completely online aspect of this program was enticing, and scary at the same time. However, at the end of the road, I am so glad that I chose this program. It extended my knowledge, and gave me so many wonderful hands-on experiences that I could share with my students!

Check out my culminating project!

My portfolio also includes many examples of my work!

599: Post 2

The goal of my culminating project was to use technology to increase student-student, student-teacher, and teacher-teacher collaboration where I teach. Why I thought this was a realistic goal, I have no idea. After much frustration, I realized that I was going to have to break down the topic into much more manageable parts.

So, I decided to focus on Google Apps for Education. Students come into the high school knowing how to use this powerful tool, but many high school teachers in the building are not even aware it exists. My new project is also going to include ideas as to how social studies teachers can increase collaboration through technology. Breaking my huge goal into smaller pieces makes it much more manageable.

The first step for me was to make screencasts on different aspects of Google Docs. I way underestimated how long it would take to create the screencasts. How can a short 3 minute video take more than ten times that long to make? And, when I would keep recording them over and over to make them perfect, they began to sound rehearsed. So, what was worse? A less than perfect video, or one that sounds like a robot?

599: Post 1

I cannot believe that I am starting the final class of this program! It has caused me to look back and reflect on where I was when I first started. I remember having issues downloading skype, not knowing how to share a Google Doc, and wishing that I knew how to create visually appealing presentations. After 18 months, I am glad to say that I have command of all of those things. I tend to be a very reflective person, but sometimes it is difficult for me to realize how far I have come when technology is concerned. So, looking back over my blog was a very eye-opening experience!

565 Week 5

The change simulation went much more smoothly this week. The most important thing that I took away from the experience was the reminder to divide and conquer. There are always going to be those who are resistant to change. However, they should not keep the rest of the group from making progress. By teaming up those hesitant or unwilling to change with others that they respect, there is a greater possibility that they will change their views. However, it is also very important to ensure that some consensus can be reached. Having a top-down system of leadership is not going to give teachers the chance to buy in to the new ideas, and they will simply feel as though they are being micromanaged by individuals who have spent little time in the ever-changing classroom!

565 Week 4

The discussions on climate and morale really spoke to me this week. There are many people who are unhappy with the climate that they work in, and some do little to try to change the situation. Some complain and whine about how terrible things are, while others try to take action to change things. However, an attempt to change things can get individuals into trouble. Those in power are not always excited for negative feedback. Some of them aren't excited about any feedback. It is a shame when those who are in power care little about how those under them feel.

565 Week 3

The most interesting thing this week was looking at the Beloit College mindset. It is really important to keep in mind who you are trying to lead, and make the content/changes relevant to them. My current students were born when I was in high school, so I need to remember to think about their life experiences, and how they differed from my life experiences when I was their age. The internet wasn't huge until I went to college, and they have had exposure to it their entire lives! That fact alone has made their childhoods vastly different from what mine was like.

Additionally, it is important for leaders to meet others where they are. It is important for someone to lead, but it is also important for that leader to recognize the stumbling blocks for those he/she is trying to lead!

565 Week 2

It was interesting to delve a little deeper into WINNS data this week. While I have been exposed to it at staff meetings, I have never poked around the website myself. The most interesting piece of information that I found was how the percent of students performing at the advanced and proficient levels has increased in the past five years. In November of 2005, 80.8% of our 10th grade students were performing at the advanced/proficient levels. That rate has been steading increasing, and was at 89% in 2009. It was also intersting to see that female students scored advanced/proficent at a rate of 93% on the 10th grade WKCE reading test, while 82% of male students were advanced/proficient. When it came to math, 87% of the females were advanced/profcient, while only 79% of the males were. Overall, more female students were advanced in reading, while more male students were advanced in math. But, when one adds in the proficent category, the girls are doing better than the guys.

565 Week 1

This week we started our teacher leadership course. This year, I moved from the middle school to the high school, and switched from German to social studies. One thing that I was greatly looking forward to was having a department to share ideas with! When I was at the middle school, I was the only one teaching German. Now, I have eight colleagues who are also teaching social studies, two of those are teaching the same courses that I teach! Having others to discuss curriculum with has made the transition to the high school easier. The department shares curriculum ideas with me, and I share my technology knowledge with them........

555 #3: Culminating proposal is done.....

Writing my culminating project proposal was an interesting undertaking. I write objectives for my students on a very regular basis, but writing them for myself was difficult. I wanted to make sure that my objectives were achievable, but not superficial. It was also interesting to try to provide a time line for the project. Using technology always seems to take a little more time than I anticipate it will. It was also interesting to make a rubric to assess the project. Knowing that I will be expected to meet the standards that I set was a good exercise. And, it also made me think about standards that I set in other arenas of my life.

I continue to work on my online portfolio. It has been gratifying to sift through all of the work that I have completed to get to this point in the program. It is hard to believe that we are almost done!

555 Post #2

My computer was acting a little crazy the other day, and I thought back to how much information I used to store on my computer. During our last class with John, we had to think about what we would lose if we lost everything that was on our computer. So, I was so thankful that I store so much online, and not so much on my computer! My computer ended up being fine, but I was concerned...until I realized that I would not lose all that much. Thanks for the lesson, John!!

My portfolio for this course is still in its infancy. But, I finally feel caught up and think that going back and looking at all of the work I have done will be satisfying. So, I am actually looking forward to remember all of the work that I have put into this program, and realize where I was when I started!

I tweaked my final proposal idea to working with student and staff collaboration. Then, I can add in the Google Apps component that I want to, while focusing on students' building 21st century skills with their peers.

555 Post #1: Online Portfolios and Proposal Ideas

While looking at educational online portfolios, I realized that they varied quite a bit. I am a very visual learner, so I immediately noticed that some of them were very clean and professional looking. Others were very busy and less than professional looking. I was also amazed at how personal some of these supposedly professional portfolios were. I am not sure that individuals should go on and on about their pets in their online portfolios. Additionally, I was also frustrated with some of the navigation (or lack thereof) that I encountered. I will try very hard to make sure that my site is easy to navigate and looks clean and professional.

I have heard mixed reviews of Google Sites, but I am excited to use another Google application. I use Google quite a bit at school, and I like the web-based aspect of it for my students. I hope that it will be easy to use, and give it the look that I am hoping to achieve.

I have also begun thinking about my final project for this program. I would like to explore Google Wave a little more, but I am not sure that I want to commit to it for my final project at this time. I have been using a classroom ning with my sociology kids this year, and I am also thinking of delving into that a little deeper. I will continue to think about the final project and make a decision soon.......

550 Final Reflection

It is hard to believe that we only have three more courses to complete before our program is finished!

I will use what I learned in this course over the next 30 days by making sure that I check in more frequently with my online students. Sometimes I do not check in as often as I could. And, I will also work on providing better feedback to them!

I will use what I learned in the next year by implementing online discussions with my online students. It would be nice to check in with them face to face and learn with them in a virtual classroom.

After completing this course, I would like to learn more about how to use Elluminate. Perhaps I don't need to learn more about it, rather I need to spend more time practicing using it.

550 Week 2

After facilitating a small part of last week's discussion, I was surprised at how difficult it was to run the discussion. There were so many things that I needed to keep my eyes on. It was difficult to ask meaningful questions, keep the discussion moving, and include everyone in the discussion.

Not being able to see individual's reactions also make facilitating difficult. I am a very visual person, who is quite animated in real life, and I thrive on interpersonal interaction. So, not having immediate nonverbal feedback was challenging for me!

550 Week 1

I am shocked at the degree that online instructors are making themselves available to their students. I facilitate a group of online students, but I do not make myself so available to my students. I remind them to breathe, and that few things are so important that they cannot wait until morning.

As an online facilitator, I do not, and will not, make myself available to my students during all of my waking hours. I know that instructors need to be accessible, but I feel that sometimes I am walking a very fine line. I want my students to be successful, but I need to have some separation between work and my personal life. The first year that I taught, I was working 12 hours a day, and going in on the weekends. I was miserable. Having balance in my life makes me a much happier and more content instructor who can meet the needs of her students!

540 Week 5

Good news to report! My Dell laptop came back to life. As much as I wanted to have a Mac, it isn't really in my budget. I need to pay for grad school first!

This week, we were working on Google Trends. But, I have a different question that is completely unrelated. I have my junior/senior sociology kids working on a ning right now. And, I would like to create a wiki/ning/moodle (or something similar) for my 90 freshmen history kids. However, I am trying to figure out the pros and cons of each.

I used a wiki with my 7th graders. It worked for what I wanted it to do. But, I am not sure that it is the correct forum for my 9th graders.

The ning that I created for my 11th and 12th graders works well for them, and they appreciate the break from moodle. However, do so many teachers in my district use moodle because they love it, or because they are familar with it? Is it worth exposing my students to the ning, just so that they can become familar with something else? Can the ning do all that I want it to do for my kids? And, if I couple that with Google Docs, will that meet all of my needs? I will continue pondering. If you have any advice, I would love to hear it!

540 Week 4

This week, we looked at Bill Tancer's company, Hitwise. If I worked in marketing, I would appreciate Tancer's information. However, as a consumer, who does not work in the marketing department, I wonder where Tancer draws his line. He seems to follow our every action online, and it concerns me that the information could fall into the wrong hands. I am not usually so paranoid, but I am concerned about how slippery this slope could become. Doesn't the library already tell the government which books I am checking out?

On a totally unrelated note. I have been having difficulties opening the Wiziq helpful hints for completing the Z score table. Any ideas?

540 Week 3

I really liked creating the survey on SurveyMonkey this week. It was much easier to create than I thought it would be. Well, the actual creation of it was easy. But, it was difficult to decide how to word the questions the best responses. I never thought that writing survey questions would be so difficult. Additionally, it was difficult to determine how to balance close and open-ended questions. Closed ended questions provide quick feedback that is easy to chart and analyze. However, open ended questions might offer the opportunities for better answers. And, will some people shy away from the open ended questions, because they require more work? Or, will others be frustrated with the inability to offer as much constructive feedback as they desire?