Week 9 Reflection

Reflection Notes: Is self and peer assessment a procedure you would like to apply to your classes?

As an instructor of 7 year old students, I believe in the value of assessments. I would find ways to make it work and apply it in my classroom as often as possible. I believe assessments are a fair way to gain information and to see how well students are learning.

In implementing it I would however consider the project that the assessment lends itself too. In reading the DB some food for thought was posted by several of my peers. For example, would it be a true assessment if students were friends? Would they grade higher because the feelings aspect was involved?

As far as self assessement I feel that this blog spot is a great way to asses myself. Each time I post, I think back on what I have learned and write about how I have applied it. This serves as an informative tool for the instructor to see that I am in fact learning because I discuss its relevance in my post.

In closing, I found that this week was one of great value. As a teacher I am always trying to find ways to reach and teach my students and make my instruction as meaningful as possible. Assessments are certainly one way to do it.

Glad This Week is Over

Make a note of what peer assessment concerns you might have.

This will be a quick post, as I have lost a very dear friend and assessments are the furthest thing from my mind at this time.

In any situation when your work is judged by others, there is always a concern that it may be done harshly, and unfairly. However, based on my peers in this quarter's class I have no doubt, that during the assessment of our projects this week, that all praise and criticism will be constructive and given with the intent to make the overall project better than it was. I am going to end at this time, as I need to take a few deep breaths........

Michelle

P.S. my article was posted :-)

Unit 7 - Reflections

What apprehension can you overcome by submitting your article for publication?

I always encounter a sense of apprehension when entereing into unchartered territory. In submitting my article accepted or not, it allows me to feel a sense of accomplishment, in creating something that was even worthy of consideration.
Often in life we hesitate to go forward, test new waters because what if we fail, or are judged too harshly. That seems to haunt me at times, this level of insecurity that prevails, when I know deep down that it shouldn't. Each goal I've reached, each milestone I've crossed has happened because I put forth the effort to make it happen.

So regardless, of the outcome the invitation to submit was one of exhiliration. In the end it jumpstarts that desire to do more, whether it's as simple as writing a letter, or as time consuming as writing and applying for the grant. It's the experience of writing and publishing that's rewarding.

Unit 6 - Thank you part two

A friend just emailed me this picture. It's my son and I camping which I don't do enough of..... maybe sleeping on the ground has something to do with it. It was his Cub Scout Weebeloree and while we're working on our thank you's I want to tell him thank you for making me always smile!

Reflecting and Saying Thank You

Unit 6 - Reflecting and saying thank you


Change - it's hard to decided what changes I would like to elicit, because at times it's difficult to introduce our own change. I would hope though that when someone suggests change it does actually improve the content of the paper/or project. I would also hope that when our final project is done its purpose to helps those who are new to teaching in the online community is realized.

I once heard that for a teacher 7 years of continuous teaching is the magic number. At 7 years you can walk into a classroom without a lesson planned, a broken copy machine, computers down and still make it through the day. Time and experience has given you that gift. For new online teachers I hope that our site will give them that gift and they won't have to wait 7 years for a sense of ease and confidence to emerge. I also hope they recognize the dedication that went in to producing the site which we continue to work on as a very cohesive group, sprinkled with some laughter too. In the end my goal is for readers to embrace and appreciate the final project!

As far as thank you's they are aimed at the group. Lisa, Lori, John ---each of you brings your energy, wit and solid work ethic to this project. I truly appreciate that. There's such a sense of team-work, if only that could transcend into my line of work at times, this seamless feeling of all for one, not me, me, me. What a grand place it would be.

Lastly, I need to thank my family for their support and patience during this 18 month journey.

Unit 5

What will you do to better prepare students for their team/group/partner interactions

Team work is always a hard call. It can be very difficult convincing a 7 year old why it really can be beneficial. By now they have also formed their distinct friendships and have very clear ideas about who they should be paired with. At times it works. For example today, I partnered them up to read about motion. To check for understanding they used their whiteboards and listed one important fact from each chapter. It was very clear who the assignment worked for and who it did not. Yet, I will persevere because I do see the benefits when it works.

I will continue to work on modeling group work, charting the successes, asking for their feedback, asking them to tell what their ideal group would look like. I hope that what they will remember from their experiences is that sharing ideas is a powerful tool in learning, and can make learning a lot of fun.

Unit 4 - Individual and Group Reflection

I really enjoyed the readings this week, and how easily they are applicable to almost all facets of life in general. As a teacher I found Whitesel's article to be very applicable to my own classroom and even more so as I continue to work with my team for this class. To date we continue to report to each other on a regular basis and seek out ways to infuse our virtual collaboration with skills and tools that make the process feel seamless.

Individually I made the first post on what I believe our team charter and objectives should be. This was a first as I am not one to hit the ground running, I prefer to lurk as they say and see what the other's have to say. For me this was putting the whole team concept into action, I got the ball rolling so to speak and feel like I really contributed to the group effort.

This weekend since all members seem to have some disposable time, if there is such a thing I believe that we will further progress and hone our guidelines. It's a wonderful thing to be part of such a thriving process.

Group Process

Please place an individual interpretation of the team process and final decision in your personal blog. During your reflection, my suggestion is to consider elements of culture and community found in your readings. When this is completed, email the instructor your blog address and notification that the assignment has been completed.

I have had nothing but positive group/team experiences throughout each of my classes. So in this case it was refreshing to again still experience the same euphoria. What was interesting about this experience though was that John and I were approached. Ah to be wanted. To be invited makes the initial part feel very welcoming and immediately put me at ease. We instantly built our community by meeting each other on BB. Once the group was formed we voted on a name (I must say we are a very democratic group) and then we were off. We have now formed our own group in Blackboard in which I respond to daily. I feel that as we continue with this process we are each stakeholders investing in a successful outcome. We are using various forms of technology to accomplish our goals. I believe soon we will delve into using a wiki which allows us continue to build our online community as we create our guidelines for Unit 5. In looking back on the readings I found this sentence applicable to the experience thus far with a little modification.. I am "developing and practicing skills with my virtual community. As I proceed this experience will allow me to extend them to the real world one that is comprised of social, educational, political and commercial communities. This will enable me to enhance and create programs that will reach individual needs.

Week Three - In my initial post I outlined why I felt we need some form of online environment in our district. In re-reading the post, the scope is too vast, one which may be unmanageable without additional suppport. Thus, I have narrowed the scope an attempt to create a forum that will create opportunities for teachers who in turn may want to create opportunities for their students. Thus, my proposal is to create an online forum for teachers to exchange ideas, collaborate and share their classroom experiences. Forecasted are huge budget cuts which would possibly eliminate Staff Development days thus minimizing if not eliminating opportunities to collaborate. . In creating this forum teachers would find supportive and added approaches in assisting their student’s learning projections. Increasing attention has been given to the ways in which technology can be used to facilitate and support collaborative knowledge building. (Li, Q. 2004). Online forums can meet this challenge and provoke sustained knowledge generation because they provide a space not only to develop ideas and questions but to also store these ideas and questions so that they are always available for further discussion and revision (Scradamalia & Bereiter, 1994).
The objective of the forum would be to: (a) establish a friendly, open environment; (b) encourage teachers to give feedback and suggestions (c) use discussions to address sensitive and prickly issues which may emerge in education today, (d) encourage regular reflection and share it.

Looking for My Place

After reading A Place for Everyone I went back and highlighted areas that will have optimal benefit not only to my continuation in this class but for my course project as well. The reading allowed me to venture outside of my confines and see things outside of my f2f classroom, where a community should not limited by the confines of four walls. This approach implemented whole-heartedly will work in all arenas home, classrooms, churches, and neighborhoods.

When done effectively and keeping all learning styles in mind "participants have a much richer environment, where they could more easily relish the learning experience." In reflection of this phrase, I find that it unfortunetly does not encapsulate what is happening in many classrooms today. Instead too many would rather forget about their learning experience since it does not feed their individual desire or need to learn. We need to fix that however daunting it may be. We need to find that fit for everyone, so learning becomes a passion, a zest to uncover the unknown and a constant journey of exploration.

"Social capital can be conceptualized as a community resource that builds from groupmembers’ acquired knowledge, from the networks established through cooperative activity that might include situations designed to promote learning, and from identity resources developed from engaging in social activity such as trust, increased competence, or developing voice (Balatti & Falk, 2002)."

In reading this statement I feel the need to go back and think about the question Datta Kaur posed to us.

To add to this I am posting Datta's question to see if I want to add to my previous post.

Based on your personal experience, discussions and readings, choose a topic or title that may be of interest to you, personally. Be prepared to present this topic/title to your new team members during Unit 3. When consensus on topics and titles is reached, you and your team will develop a research and/or writing project that will become your final paper for this course.

Creating an Optimal Online Learning Community

As a student in online courses I have researched and learned a lot about the many ways interaction occurs. Promoting interactivity and connectivity amongst participants is an integral part of online learning. It is through interaction that students will gain valuable learning experiences.

Currently, my district offers no online courses, yet as a whole we are extremely driven by technology. Bonds have passed, we have state of the art equipment yet have not considered or formulated a plan to offer any courses. Consider that I am currently at a K-8 site, where online learning maybe benefical to many. In our reading Finding a Place of Everyone it states that online community will include learner of all types, background, preferences and personal goals. We as teachers are always trying to improve our programs and methodologies to create optimal environments for students. Yet constraints into creating a successful program continue to surrmount.

Reasons why it is not offered:

• direction or education about online learning is a vague concept to many - education about online learning needs to discussed in the from of meetings, forums etc.
• lack of funding - facing a $4 million dollar deficit in the next two years.
• unfamiliarity with computers
• unwillingness to adapt to new programs
• changes the way collaboration may be viewed
• do online communities/classrooms benefit students in the same way a f2f classroom does
• less personaliztion
  
  Solution - create an action plan that will outline the benefits, how it will be implemented, who it will benefit, determine who the need exists for.
• Create surveys to check the receptiveness of parents, teachers, administration, district sups
• set goals for student
• involve the community to create a community of online learning