Last Day

Today was our final day of a very productive week. We started today with an excellent "team building/collaborative" exercise with the puzzles. I thought this would be a great simulation with my international relations classes regarding diplomacy between countries who have special interests. Next we spent the rest of the day hearing about the special projects each student was working on. I filled up five pages of my legal pad with great websites/projects/ classroom ideas from the colleagues in my class. It has been a wonderful week, well worth my time.

Productive Day

Today I feel like I turned a corner with Moodle. I was grateful for the time this morning to be able to work. As a result I was able to set up my Moodle site, enroll over half of my students for next year, and set up four different activities for my AP US history course summer work. These include file downloads, video clips and even a forum. I was also able to set up an account for Diigo and Web-Jogger.
After a delicious (and filling) pizza lunch I was able to stave off the food coma by discussing things NOT to do on-line in a jig-saw activity. These were basic common sense items but good reminders as I have been receiving "friend requests" from former students who have already graduated.
Finally I benefited tremendously from the small group discussion with other social studies teachers and I feel that I have a good idea of what I want to do for my Final Project.
Another good day, I don't feel as tired or overwhelmed today as I have in the past.

WEdnesday- Pushing the Envelope

Having been fired up by all of the "STEM" talks this morning I thought I would push the "technological envelope" and try to insert a picture and perhaps a video clip into my blog. Having the speakers in the morning was a nice change of pace, and while I could not apply the Future City directly to my high school class, I found the concept of city planning and design very interesting for a US history city planning unit when covering the late 19th century. (Of during the 1950's when suburbs were developed).
During the question and answer period at the latter part of class today I was very surprised to hear the number of students that are in an IQ class (50 makes one section?!?!?!?) This is good to remember as my district begins to plan and create our own on-line teaching. As one of the "pioneers" I would want to do everything possible to avoid that situation.

By the way it was my daughter Monica's 8th birthday this week, so I decided to put an earlier photo of her having breakfast in bed on her birthday three years ago.

Don't know about the video....

2nd time around

I just typed an entry and lost it! How? I am not sure, maybe I published before saving. This one will be shorter.
Today I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with the number of resources and sites available. I think my goal should be to find 5-7 really good websites and use them consistently. So far Hippocampus, WEbspiration, Mindstreams are all winners.
From the breakout group I thought of a great technique for teaching in the hybrid class. When teaching essay writing skills (compare and contrast questions, always big in AP), have students in a group of four fill out the Venn diagram in class. (The planning so to speak). Next, when they go home, using a discussion board, live editing program, the would write the essay in the following manner:
Person 1- THesis Paragrpah
Person 2- Body Paragraph 1
Person 3- Body Paragrpah 2
Person 4- Body Paragrpah 3
Person 1 conlusion.
The essay would be posted the next day, and the first activity in class would be fore each group to review and critique another groups essay.

Or somethng like this......

Hope this post works ....see you all tomorrow.

Reflections

Here are some key things to remember from our first day:

First, it is important to remember that I need to complete planning the entire course BEFORE I begin teaching an online course. This will ensure that I am organized, and not "one step ahead" of the students. Also, it is important to start out with clearly defined ethical boundaries for my students, and to model these ethics throughout the year.

Another important idea to remember from today involves the realities of teaching online. From the comments of classmates who are experienced, it is clear that on-line teaching can be more cumbersome than face to face if I have not prepared adequately or realistically. (I don't need to read 90 blog entries every other night...instead assign the writing, and require students to respond to two other students blogs.)

A third concept from today comes from the "teaching simulation" (one person giving directions and the other person drawing). This truly stressed the importance of common language, clear directions,communication, feedback and positive reinforcement when dealing with online teaching.

Finally, the keynote speaker, George Theoharis, was excellent. His comments truly resonated with some inequality issues that exist in my school.

Overall a great first day.