My
overall experience with this course opened my eyes to many tools I did not know
existed, that many teachers are already using and that appear to be fun for
students to use which could make learning a lot more fun. I struggled with some
of the tools or maybe it was the deadlines I needed to meet and my inexperience
with those tools that frustrated because I felt dumb! I think we could have fun
with students collaborating on creating a lesson on how to use different tools
with examples that allows them to express themselves.
As referenced
in Standard A, I now know and understand the instructional delivery continuum,
and that I was teaching a blended course prior to taking this online course and
excited to take it to an online course. I learned new laws, techniques, skills,
and vocabulary this summer and I’m sure there is more to come as I take on this
online teaching venture. I believe I am more aware of the needs that online
learning can meet whereas before I was just making the curriculum conveniently
available. I now know students will walk away having had a great learning
experience, bonding with peers and teacher while being held accountable for
production to those same people also referenced in standard A; the online
teacher knows and understands the role of online learning in preparing students
for the global community they live in, both now and the future.
I
will focus my area of growth in Standard B learning multiple online Web 2.0
tools and mastering those that work well with the grade level I teach to
develop communication, productivity, collaboration, analysis, presentation,
research, and content delivery. One I have mastered these tools I will have a
stronger ability to implement online pedagogy. I look forward to be able to
select quickly tools that meet the needs of our curriculum content while also
addressing the different learning styles of students as well as specials needs students.
I would currently rank myself as a novice in this area and would need to seek
out support and direction should a challenge come up within a tool or tool type
if we are not enabling student success.
This
will be the first time I have taught in a manner that focuses on student
collaboration as referred to in Standard C. Small group activities in a year
are minimal in my past courses and will increase to every two to three weeks. My
focus will be to know and understand the process for facilitating and monitoring
online instruction groups that are goal oriented, focused, project-based, and
inquiry-oriented to promote learning through group interaction.
My
time management and good organization skills will help me with Standard D;
providing prompt feedback, communicate high expectations, and respecting
diverse talents and learning styles. Students today have very little patience
and want to know their results immediately, and I like the material to be fresh
on their minds so correction is easy for them to assimilate. These same skills
allow me to have strong communication skills with parents as well which is
addressed in Standard J; concerning student learning. Parents like to hear of
students successes and challenges and I like to know that they are talking at
home, possibly from a prompt I have given a parent to make sure we keep a
student on task.
I am
able to identify and intervene in incidents of academic dishonesty as
referenced in Standard E, and feel the online web 2.0 tools actually help
eliminate students cheating from each other, as most students don’t know when
something was taken from them, but we will need to develop a short lesson on
how copyright laws are created for a reason.
Standard
F addresses ability to meet student academic needs and use of accommodations
into the online environment. I now understand
the importance of formatting documents consistently for accessibility,
something all of our schools have not focused on for written direction in our
online course, and I will improve screen casting techniques and use accessibility
guidelines learned in this course.
I feel
I am proficient with using and creating online assessments, implementing the
scramble feature as well as timing their assessment has eliminated the ability
of neighbors to cheat. This is addressed in Standard G.
I
believe one of my strengths to be within Standard H and my ability to apply
authentic assessments as part of the evaluation process, assess student
knowledge in a forum beyond traditional assessments, and monitor academic
integrity with assessments. But after taking this course we will be taking our
minimal group activities and peer reviews to the next level and assess students
in groups using their ability to think cognitively, confidently in an online
environment where they each feel their efforts have benefited their peers and
they have benefited from their peers.
My
other strength is adjusting our curriculum content regularly based on student,
parent and teacher input and feedback as directed in Standard I. We have done
this with surveys which give me the numbers and comments to back up changes I
may recommend, that when done with pencil in hand responses were limited and
vague making their outcome useless. However, I am looking forward to the polls
and surveys we are going to use in our new Haiku course which assesses opinion
more often than we have in the past. I believe this creates ownership for
students as well knowing that their input is valued. I am currently working on
finding a free program we can use for students to assess their online course
readiness that I discovered in our lessons.
We
are currently designing our course in Haiku using many of the skills and techniques
we have learned in this course. The four teachers involved in this process are
collaborating to arrange media and content to help transfer knowledge most
effectively in the online environment as identified in Standard K. We are
making each section consistent so students know what to expect and making sure
we have media in same stages of learning as well as location of information on
the pages.
My
plans to master my areas of growth will be through time management, and
dedicating time to learn a number of web 2.0 tools weekly, incorporate them
into the content with a focus on group work. My fellow teachers who are
creating our course will also meet monthly
face-to-face and regularly online to discuss what tools we have learned and
changes we would like to see based on our results at all four high school sites.
I will also look for a periodical that will help keep me up to date with online
teaching as it grows and develops so we stay on the cutting edge.
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