Unit 5 Musings

In thinking about Unit 5 and being in full swing with my teaching, coaching, and general life duties the biggest obstacle that needs to be hurdled is the group webinar. Being able to coordinate time to work with each other and hopefully do it online together has been tough. One of us has Homecoming this week, my school's is next week so that congests time that is usually devoted to this course. I think that with flexibility and respect for everyone's private life along with the extended time to complete the project creating the webinar won't be too hectic. The big thing is to continue plugging along and not allowing ourselves to get slowed done or distracted.

Unit 4 Musings

The lessons from Unit 4 reminded me of the Education Classes that I took in college as I prepared to become a teacher. The variety of activities that are available made me reflect upon my current teaching methods. Actually, it helped in that by doing this reflection I had the chance to then think about my strengths and weaknesses. It then refreshed my memory of some techniques that I haven't used in awhile or might want to incorporate more often when looking at the absorbed activities. The biggest struggle is that of time and being able to commit the proper effort and focus to ensure that anything tried is executed properly. Overall, I did enjoy the work and look forward to utilizing these ideas in the classroom.

Unit 3 Musings

Having had a few days to reflect and think about the lessons learned from Unit 3, I had the opportunity to attend a training on Wednesday for the Digital Educator Program in my district that I was selected to be part of for this year. The training in this program is to equip a teacher in every building each year with new tech skills that can be taught to the students and fellow staff members for implementation in the classroom. I wanted to take advantage of this program since my teaching partner and I are always looking to improve our methods of instruction to reach the sound byte attention span of our students.
There I had a chance to participate in a discussion about e-learning and I mentioned the issues that I had with L-L versus a blend of I-L and L-L. That depending upon how the course has been built there is plenty of opportunity for schools/districts to get students credentialed en masse with minimal regards to rigor (big buzz term in the district). Many of my colleagues at the training agreed that the implemented courses that are in building are not sufficient and don't meet the end statements of the district.
This led to a discussion later on that I had with my principal who flat out stated that he was not impressed with the current offering on sight. However, he did give me a connection with the Principal of the new district e-learning program so that I might be able to access the course and possibly give it an audit during a break. The chance to evaluate this is something that I look forward to doing and sharing my thoughts/experiences with at a later date. It probably won't happen until Winter Break due to coaching, rehab (knee...not the 12 step kind), and obviously work.
I am excited to check out what we are offering and to hopefully get involved at the district level to help refine what it is our future is learning.