In reflecting on my teaching abilities, I will state that I am Certified to teach middle grades math, language arts, and social studies. I have earned my Ed.S in Education Technology and have an online teaching and reading endorsement from RESA. I feel that I have the prerequisite technology skills to teach online because of my endorsement, experience gathered during my 4 years teaching online classes through our district virtual program, and exposure to many different strategies and tools discovered through the quests. My classes are engaging and flexible and I do work with individuals to make sure that they master the material prior to moving forward in the course. I often post several recovery assignments that appeal to different type learners for students to relearn material and recover from exams. I will use online games, interactive quizzes with feedback, Safari videos, and Softchalk activities.I post weekly announcements, hold weekly Safari Live Class Meetings, send regular emails and keep constant communication with the students online.
I post a copy of the Forsyth County AUP policy, constantly refer to technology etiquette and post my netiquette policy on the announcement page, in my resource folder, and in the class orientation folder.
I have had experience as a student online, including these quests, so I can see my course as a student would. Secondly, every time I create or use a lesson for students, I view it as a student so I can see it or take the quiz from their perspective.All of my tests are based on the required Georgia Performance Standards and include a variety of Bloom levels, mostly 2 and 3. I use A2K data base to find great questions, I use the exam view bank, CRCT practice questions, and other resources to create questions – most of my tests are exported into the LMS via ExamView, but I also load my own.I create interactive games and assessments, projects, learning activities, videos, recordings, virtual examples, and exams all based on the pacing guide and the Georgia Performance Standards.I use the LOR, Promethean Planet, sites obtained through the online endorsement class, fellow teachers, online searches, packaged parts of lessons, and self-created activities to engage the students in learning.I use pre-tests via Wordle and Crossword Puzzles to introduce the language of math, then pre-assess the knowledge – allowing students to open the pre-assessments after a period of learning to see how much growth has been evident.
ARTIFACTS
Project - Dissolving the Digital Divide
Socrative Workshop Project
Problem Based Learning Unit
SELF-REFLECTIONS
ARTIFACTS
Project - Dissolving the Digital Divide
Socrative Workshop Project
Problem Based Learning Unit
SELF-REFLECTIONS
One area in which I would like to show improvement deals with academic honesty in my course, I agree with Dr. Siemens that we must “redefine cheating and plagiarism” (Siemens, Plagarism and Academic Honesty, 2009) due to the instant and easy access to so many resources and information at our fingertips. It would take every minute of the educator’s time to search through the web for any sign of copying and my course will make it very difficult to find infringements because many times, there is only one way to solve a specific math problem so it would be nearly impossible to find any type of issues dealing with plagiarism. Having knowledge of this fact should encourage me to develop a course that can be engaging, shows connections to real life situations, and gives the students opportunities to bring in personal strategies and methods as they discuss and collaborate about problems involving mathematics.
Another big area in which I will need to show improvement will be in the area of assessment. Siemens states that we must move toward “authentic assessments that deal with approaches that are reflective of real life” (Siemens, Plagarism and Academic Honesty, 2009). This is true in f2f and online courses in this age of twenty-first century learners. Students are much more personally involved and engaged when they can glimpse a link to actual life experiences.
As for copyright issues, I feel that the first level of the Creative Commons License would be sufficient for my course. In this license, the only request is that any work used is attributed to the original author. Many of the math problems that I create are built upon those that I have seen or used in the past from books or resources online, and I try to give the credit to the source. The schools system where I teach has a closed LMS so many of us do not worry about our copyrights since we are only posting courses and resources within our own database. However, we do have more strict and specific copyright statements that require anyone who uses the collaborative material from our district to gain permission prior to use outside of our district. This will not be the case for my course because I would like to see what others can do with some of the resources I have packaged. I am not an extremely creative person and I certainly am enthusiastic about seeing what creative people can do with my basic efforts.
I must be sure to design a class that focuses on thinking and problem-solving, identify the goals for the lesson and provide students with effective learning strategies to process the information. Use of learning communities is an important strategy in the cognitive learning theory and should be used with teacher guidance instead of teacher control, giving the learner more involvement in the learning process by linking new knowledge to existing knowledge. In cognitive learning, analogies, concept mapping, organizers are good strategies for the teacher to bring into the classroom. Also, it is important that I stay current on new technologies that support students in this theory and most importantly, mix up the different learning theories to create the best learning environment for the students.
Another big area in which I will need to show improvement will be in the area of assessment. Siemens states that we must move toward “authentic assessments that deal with approaches that are reflective of real life” (Siemens, Plagarism and Academic Honesty, 2009). This is true in f2f and online courses in this age of twenty-first century learners. Students are much more personally involved and engaged when they can glimpse a link to actual life experiences.
As for copyright issues, I feel that the first level of the Creative Commons License would be sufficient for my course. In this license, the only request is that any work used is attributed to the original author. Many of the math problems that I create are built upon those that I have seen or used in the past from books or resources online, and I try to give the credit to the source. The schools system where I teach has a closed LMS so many of us do not worry about our copyrights since we are only posting courses and resources within our own database. However, we do have more strict and specific copyright statements that require anyone who uses the collaborative material from our district to gain permission prior to use outside of our district. This will not be the case for my course because I would like to see what others can do with some of the resources I have packaged. I am not an extremely creative person and I certainly am enthusiastic about seeing what creative people can do with my basic efforts.
I must be sure to design a class that focuses on thinking and problem-solving, identify the goals for the lesson and provide students with effective learning strategies to process the information. Use of learning communities is an important strategy in the cognitive learning theory and should be used with teacher guidance instead of teacher control, giving the learner more involvement in the learning process by linking new knowledge to existing knowledge. In cognitive learning, analogies, concept mapping, organizers are good strategies for the teacher to bring into the classroom. Also, it is important that I stay current on new technologies that support students in this theory and most importantly, mix up the different learning theories to create the best learning environment for the students.
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