Week Six Final Reflection

I enjoyed this class very much. Besides working with a great group of people, who have wonderful ideas and are always willing to help, this class brought me up to speed on the types of lessons that I will probably be expected to teach. Hopefully I will also be able to help other teachers in my building integrate technology into their lessons and unit plans. The unit plan was a totally new concept for me. Having to create one for this class has been very eye opening. Things have changed a lot since I was in the classroom fulltime. It helped me to see how important each part of a lesson is and how important it is to think everything through carefully, so it all has a purpose and is still exciting for the students. Everyone in the class created wonderful unit plans and it was really nice hearing all of their presentations. We also had to read two articles on project–based learning or something related to what we were learning about in class. They were all very interesting and meaningful, and all of them made sense to me! Amazing!

The whole idea of LoTI was totally new for me as well. The assignment that we had to do, maybe the second week of class, was very helpful. It helped me to understand what LoTI is, and gave me a better idea of how to decide what level I am working at and what I can do to improve. I think it will be fun trying to make sure I integrate a decent level of technology and real experiences into the classes I will hopefully be teaching.

I also want to thank Dave for all his help. At the beginning of the class I was very apprehensive about the unit plan and LoTI, and it seemed like I was always asking questions. He was very patient and always had answers. I thought it was really cool when one of the people in my study group found a possible mistake in some statistics we were given, and he went and confronted the group that had made the mistake. Not many teachers will do that!!

Like some of the others in my group have mentioned, I am looking forward to being finished with these classes, and hopefully get a chance to put this stuff into practice. We have come a long way since last August, and I’m looking forward to being finished in December (at least for a little while!)

Week Five Reflection

I think this week has been pretty productive for me. I did a lot of work on my unit plan, and think I am pretty much finished, except for some touch-ups. Dave gave me a lot of guidance on Wednesday at class, and I tried to implement items that I was missing or needed to tweek. I had a chance to look at Matt's unit plan, and he has a very good, thoughtful, and well planned out unit. I have a feeling Matt is a pretty awesome History teacher. I minored in History and love to read about the past. His unit plan on Jamestown and the question he askes are really interesting. Could pioneers to other planets learn from the mistakes at Jamestown? Maybe some day we will find out!

Week Four Reflection

This was a pretty interesting week. The Google Lit Class was really cool, and I was able to find a place for it in my Unit Plan. It fit in really nicely as a group project after a discussion on maps and locations. I’m pretty excited about that one. Its 8:11 Sunday night. I’m on the Ohio Turnpike, and burned to a crisp. Had a great time at the races. I did school work all the way down, and got my article read and written, and then worked on my Unit Plan. I was able to get a lot done on the daily lesson plans, but I only have it down on paper. Have to get it on the computer now. But, I am really hot, and really tired, so this is the last I’m going to do. I’ll transfer this to my blog when I get home. Sorry it's late.

Week Three Reflection

This week I think I got quite a bit done one both projects. I did a lot of thinking on my unit plan, I have a lot of ideas rolling around in my head. My problem is that I have gone two different directions in my thinking, both good ideas, but I am getting the ideas mixed up and I am having trouble getting them straightened out. I'm having trouble concentrating. That seems to be my biggest problem so far. I have my standards figured out, but I still have to figure out the time line for the project. Since I only meet with each class once a week, the main teaching will probably go on for a couple of months, but the rest of the project will probably be on going, depending how much interaction we get with other schools. I am also taking a two- day Google Lit Trip class this week. If I can figure out how, I might like to add that to my unit plan as well. I'm wondering if I am making this too complicated :/

Week Two Reflection

This week was a bit tough, with the Reading class going on. I didn't have much of an opportunity to get to work on this weeks' assignments until Friday night. But, I think I have come up with a plan for my unit, and I have found some information for our group project, so I am feeling a little bit better. After reading the articles, (mine included), I have a little bit better understanding about what a PBL unit should be about. I found the Project Analysis Form assignment helpful. After working on that, I have a good idea of how to put down my work for the PBL unit. I haven't had a chance to look at the standard-based learning sites yet, but will get to that some time today. So, I'm getting there, slowly but surly.

Week One Refelection

Well, here we are again, at week one. I can't believe how fast these weeks have gone by.
Got a phone call this morning at 7:30 from my daughter. She is waiting first in line to get into the Harry Potter theme park. She met all the cast of the Harry Potter musical last night at the ball, just hanging out. To be young again......

This class.......I think it is going to be o.k. Right now it seems a bit overwhelming, because of that final project.....can't quite wrap myself around it yet......need to come up with a good idea, plus that reading class starts tomorrow, with a TON of stuff to do. I did the scenario assignment yesterday, and it was actually kinda fun, at least it will be if I did it right. In my mind I understood and got it. Hope I'm right in Dave's mind:) The LoTiLounge survey was a bite. I don't teach, so trying to answer those questions makes me look pretty ignorant, at least as far as technology. At least the help graph they show after the survey didn't say anything dumb. Just showed I need A LOT of improvement. I read the Project-Based Learning article and did the discussion question. It was an interesting article, didn't loose me, and it made a lot of sense. I wonder if George Lucas can give me an idea for a project! I still have the other article to read. We are having our study group at 10:00 this morning, better get moving.