We have done it. Completed this course and survived. Not throwing out negative vibes here. Just was a lot of work in a time when there seemed to be no time. A mid course sickness the had me sleeping 24/7 for 5 days (????) didn't help much, well actually not at all.
Back on task though cause there still seems to be no time. We said our good-byes this week and I am not sure why, but I get sentimental even though I have worked with the class for 8 eight weeks and never met anyone personally. Just get that way. My wife just laughs at me. But again back on task. I really enjoyed the information my fellow classmates had to offer. They made the class what it is. I like thinking how the interaction that took place here on line would have been different in a F2F. I imagine I would have gotten to know the others better but because I am pretty social, I may have not gotten as much from the class.
The final project is finally done. I would say that in my procrastination, it turned out okay. I did do some revamping and the insights from classmates helped with that. I am excited to put the course into action. I may start planning for implementation next semester. For right now though, I am working on bits and pieces in the classroom. Last week I just introduce my students on the concept of blogging for self reflection. So for it is not 100%. Still a lot of training on the subject, although there are a few students who have taken the ball and ran with it so to say. So I am excited about the possibilities.
I need to update my e-portfolio and sometime change it so it will serve me to a better purpose. I am hoping that I am currently experiencing a "second" wind in my career. Not sure where things will take me, I just know that I am going. With that said, I am going. Again classmates, take care and hope to see a few of you in the Internet cloud and look for to continuing with these course with those that still have work to do like myself.
Rick is signing off.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Week 7 in Review
Anybody getting tired of my "Week in Review" titles. If I was to do this over I would definitely chosen a better succession of titles that put a little zip and interest drawing characteristics in it. Well, I have only one more submission of a weekly review. Any guesses on the title? Just will have to wait and see.
Okay, had my fun and now down to work. This week I really played my usually game procrastination well. Not all 100% my fault (maybe 99%), but because the activities at school and home, little time was available until Sunday to finish my draft of the final project. I should have been working on it more during week 6, but my usual habits fell into play and I paid the price on Sunday. I was beat by the evening posting of my draft. Will work on that next time (yeah right).
On a more serious note, I really have some deep appreciation for this final project. It got me to thinking about my class design I have been wanting to start and even forced me to start putting it together. Something I have been thinking and tinkering about since summer. With what I have submitted, I am well on my way to implement the first of many courses/modules for my classes. Today I shared some ideas with colleagues and they have been very inquisitive about the ideas I shared with them. I even took some of the ideas I have developed in this final project and started applying them in class. Since we just finished first quarter I ask a class of students if we could try something out. I created a class on my Moodle site and within that developed a discussion section. I assigned the student the task of creating standards for the next project with which they would create the criteria for a rubric. Each student is responsible for an initial posting of a standard and then is responsible for replying to their classmate's postings. A set of expectations and a point system was included by me to help them get started in their first discussion board. First day and they are excited and have started posting some great ideas. Will update next week.
One last bit of assessment applications in this class. Within Moodle there is a place for individual blogs. So I created one other assignment today that will carry on for the remainder of the quarter. They are to keep a reflect journal about there personal class progress. Journals are required after each class (I see them every other day for 90 minutes) and should include incites to daily achievements, thoughts, and questions. This too seems to have gone over very well.
Now I must concentrate on this class and what I need to do for the last week. I know I have a lot of reading ahead so off I go. TTFN
Okay, had my fun and now down to work. This week I really played my usually game procrastination well. Not all 100% my fault (maybe 99%), but because the activities at school and home, little time was available until Sunday to finish my draft of the final project. I should have been working on it more during week 6, but my usual habits fell into play and I paid the price on Sunday. I was beat by the evening posting of my draft. Will work on that next time (yeah right).
On a more serious note, I really have some deep appreciation for this final project. It got me to thinking about my class design I have been wanting to start and even forced me to start putting it together. Something I have been thinking and tinkering about since summer. With what I have submitted, I am well on my way to implement the first of many courses/modules for my classes. Today I shared some ideas with colleagues and they have been very inquisitive about the ideas I shared with them. I even took some of the ideas I have developed in this final project and started applying them in class. Since we just finished first quarter I ask a class of students if we could try something out. I created a class on my Moodle site and within that developed a discussion section. I assigned the student the task of creating standards for the next project with which they would create the criteria for a rubric. Each student is responsible for an initial posting of a standard and then is responsible for replying to their classmate's postings. A set of expectations and a point system was included by me to help them get started in their first discussion board. First day and they are excited and have started posting some great ideas. Will update next week.
One last bit of assessment applications in this class. Within Moodle there is a place for individual blogs. So I created one other assignment today that will carry on for the remainder of the quarter. They are to keep a reflect journal about there personal class progress. Journals are required after each class (I see them every other day for 90 minutes) and should include incites to daily achievements, thoughts, and questions. This too seems to have gone over very well.
Now I must concentrate on this class and what I need to do for the last week. I know I have a lot of reading ahead so off I go. TTFN
Monday, November 2, 2009
Week 6 in Review
Not sure what is was about this last week, but it seems as if everything was coming to a head. Grades are due, projects still need to be graded, extra duties at school are mounting and when I get home.... I know we all are busy and I am not complaining. Just can't believe the lack of time one has for them self anymore. I will make a change ... tomorrow ; )
Any hoo, I did like the comparison we had to make this week between the Casey article and Datta Kaur's. I wasn't able to sit down and thoroughly read the article until Thursday at which point I closed my self off from the rest of the house for the evening and made sure I finished the discussion posting that night. I then started looking forward to the final project and started to worry about the time requirements I was going to need next week. I then only had a few times to look at the discussion the rest of the week and was called away each time. Now it is Monday night and I feel lost at even trying to respond. I think rather than post just to post, I will just absorb the info I can from last week's discussion and move on to this week.
On a better note for me, I finished the pre-course survey and really like what I have developed. I think it will fit nicely into what I try to find out from my students throughout the course. I have revamped it several times since I email the link to the instructor and today even tried it out in one of my classes. I was looking for feedback from the students. They seemed to think it was okay, but especially like the survey I asked them to take on Multiple Intelligences. I wanted to get a feel for the type of intelligences I had in the classroom and the site I found to survey them lets me combine all the data from each of the students to get an overall reading of the class. I can even separate the data into boys and girls. I found this really interesting as did they.
Any hoo, I did like the comparison we had to make this week between the Casey article and Datta Kaur's. I wasn't able to sit down and thoroughly read the article until Thursday at which point I closed my self off from the rest of the house for the evening and made sure I finished the discussion posting that night. I then started looking forward to the final project and started to worry about the time requirements I was going to need next week. I then only had a few times to look at the discussion the rest of the week and was called away each time. Now it is Monday night and I feel lost at even trying to respond. I think rather than post just to post, I will just absorb the info I can from last week's discussion and move on to this week.
On a better note for me, I finished the pre-course survey and really like what I have developed. I think it will fit nicely into what I try to find out from my students throughout the course. I have revamped it several times since I email the link to the instructor and today even tried it out in one of my classes. I was looking for feedback from the students. They seemed to think it was okay, but especially like the survey I asked them to take on Multiple Intelligences. I wanted to get a feel for the type of intelligences I had in the classroom and the site I found to survey them lets me combine all the data from each of the students to get an overall reading of the class. I can even separate the data into boys and girls. I found this really interesting as did they.
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