Personal Learning Reflection

When I sat down and re-read my Personal Growth Plan that I submitted the first week of class, I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I suppose that I did not realize that the goals I set the first week would actually be accomplished. I feel that CEP 810 allowed me to grow professionally and personally in so many ways.


Two specific goals that I had hoped to learn about during this course really stand out to me. First, I wanted to find ways to communicate and collaborate with educators outside of my building and district. By learning about PLN’s, RSS subscriptions and joining countless educational forums and blogs, I feel that I have only started to utilize the so many resources I have at my fingertips that I never existed. I plan to continue to grow my PLN for the rest of my career. This course gave me a chance to not only find the right path for educational collaboration, but also allowed me to follow what interests me.

The second goal I feel that I achieved during this course stated in my Personal Growth Plan is using free applications and software to collaborate and share my work. The SIG proposal, plan and presentation really was imperative in learning these tools. When working with a group that exclusively can only work through the Internet and collaboration tools, I learned great ways to create, share, modify, contribute and chat with people across the world. I have already begun to implement these collaborative tools and applications in my own classroom.

In this course I have not only found what teaching strategies work well for myself when integrating technology, but I also discovered many for my students. I now know that technology skills need to be built upon, and practiced. I also learned about Google Earth, Google Notebook and Wiki’s which have the potential to be great ways to effectively teach while integrating technology.

This course gave me the opportunity to evaluate resources that may or may not be useful for myself as an educator. I enjoyed how I was allowed to discover and make my own decisions, and was not forced to accept what the college believed were the best. By learning new avenues and expanding my PLN, I was given the opportunity to grow.

I believe that the SIG project really exemplified good teaching with technology. As students, we had to create, share, communicate and present together through the use of technology. I believe that student led learning is highly beneficial, and the SIG project had all the elements of a great way to teach with technology.

Throughout the past weeks, I have found myself being excited for the weeks lessons, and sharing what I am learning with friends, family and colleagues. I have so many new goals and ideas just from the lessons I learned in my first course in the Educational Technology program. A long term goal is to get my Masters in Educational Technology from MSU. I also have the goal of helping my district to implement technology in all grade levels. I also realize that I need to implement technology into my own classroom first, which is why I have the goal of having at least one element of technology in every lesson I teach. I understand that this will take years and a lot of work, but I am excited to get started! CEP 810 has been such a positive learning experience for me not only as an educator, but personally as well. I cannot wait to learn more!

Learning Styles

I can remember always being frustrated in school because my Visual learning style was always being distracted by auditory learners and lessons. I am the type of person who cannot study in groups, needs complete silence and have to read notes over and over to get a mental image for tests. I tend to picture the location of material I need to recall mentally. Independent learning was always my favorite in the classroom. I would prefer to go at my own pace and learn by myself. However, after I knew the material or understood the content, I always would teach my fellow classmates, putting it in my own words. I do learn well from lectures ironically, but I think it is because I take my own notes and can visualize the words on paper. As much as I try to vary my lessons to reach all learning styles in my classroom, I tend to teach to the auditory learner most. After reflecting on this learning style quiz and lesson, I realize that I probably would not do well in my OWN classroom. I plan to address this in a fashion that will hopefully reach all learners, not just visual learners like myself. Teachers always struggle with the best practice in their classroom, and the ultimate goal is to reach every student. Unfortunately, the reality is that we probably wont. I believe that our focus as teachers is to have student led instruction, which will allow students to dictate and take ownership of their personal learning. I have found that not only do student learn more in student led instruction, but they are also more engaged.

Creative Commons

I can use the image below in my World History class. I will use it to visually show my students how Japanese imperialism was planned. Students have just learned about European imperialism and it will be good for them to learn about imperialism in the east as well. Students will be able to understand how Nationalism can lead to imperialism all over the world.

Photo Attribution
Original Image: "Japans plan to take over the world"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalleboo/2470237557/

By: Karl Baron
Released under an Attribution Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Be sure to check out my own Flickr page!

RSS Reader

My RSS Reader has brought the world of news that I care about right to me! I have found that each day, something new and exciting is waiting for me to read. I have found it very helpful in keeping up on current events, and linking them to course content for my students. I also noticed that feeds change with current budget issues and other national news and debates. I have learned so much from my RSS reader. For example, I have been very skeptical of social networking ever since I graduated from college. I read a feed that was from a principal of a High School who felt the same way as I did. He began to embrace the social networking tools that are out there, and his whole world has changed. He described how it connected him to other administrators across the world. This makes me believe that I can use social networking to my advantage not only in my professional but in personal life. I also learned about useful tips in case I do get laid off this next school year. :( I dont want to think about that possiblity though! I have found that I will be using RSS reader in my life for all topics I find interesting. I usually watch the news every morning, and find I always seem to share the stories I watch in my classroom. Now with RSS reader, I can stay on top of not only news in education and technology, but all facets of news and personal interests.
Another facet of RSS reader is how not only can you keep up with websites or news feeds, but blogs as well. And you can also directly participate in public blogs you subscribe to. For instance, I subscribe to a World History Teachers blog. This has been tremendously helpful in sharing information on the subject area I teach. I recently read a posting about how one teacher had discovered how to use Google Docs and Spreadsheets and he was sharing how amazing and excited he was to use this application. I posted a comment back explaining how a fellow colleague had created an online course for our district that counted as part of our requried Professional Development for our district. We learned all about Google applications and got PD hours and even SB-CEU's for the course! I recommended him to look into doing the same for his school as well. Such great information is being shared!

 I am very happy with RSS reader and its endless possiblities!
Check out what it looks like by clicking here: Shannons RSS

PC Maintenance and Security

The first tutorial I chose was "Good Security and Saftey Habits" I chose this because I have no idea what habits I should have when it comes to keeping my PC safe. One thing I learned that I will tell others is about the System Restore feature though Windows. I was very suprised that I can choose and name a point in time on my computer that can be a checkpoint for restoration. For example, I can name a time through System Restore before I install software. If the software makes my computer run weird or slow, I can restore my PC to the time prior to instalation to make it run normal again.
The second tutorial I chose was "Making email Safter" I will be sharing how I can set up filters through my Gmail account and have specific domain or email address automatically deleted. This is so amazing! I hate getting all that spam, and now I can create a filter so I NEVER have to even see the spam.
The final tutorial I chose was "Clean Up and Speed UP your PC" I learned about Windows Cleanup! This downloadable program cleans up your hardrive and gets rid of all excess baggage on your PC. Recovering space? YES! This reminds me of a maid service for a dirty house! Getting all the junk out and giving your PC space! LOVE IT!

Getting Things Done

After taking a step back and realizing that the workflow process can be an organized production, not mass caious, I tried it out. I used my blackberry as my organizational tool for my inbox, and labeled a decorative basket for a hard copy inbox. Going through everything that needs to be dealt with in my inbox, I was slightly overwhelmed. I have so much to do, but I went through it all. Tackeling a lot because it could be taken care of in less than two minutes. I couldnt believe how many small things I had been putting off! I really think this process can help me, and I even shared it with my boyfriend who owns a buisness too! He couldnt believe how effective it was! Now we both use the workflow process, and will continue to! I cant believe how simple it really is in the end.

Social Networking

I think that social networking has cleared the blurry lenses of human interaction. I have once shyed away from social networking. Fear of potential employers and future students "disecting" my life on a social network has led me to stay away from any participation, until now. I think that social networking can now help my professional and personal life, not hurt it. I find that I can reach so many lost friends and reach students and colleauges through social networking. I also think that parents and students find it very convienent to access social networking sites because they already take part in them. I am NOT afraid anymore. I have nothing to hide, and know how social networking can help me grow as an individual personally and professionally.

Web pages vs Blogs

Blogs are the advanced hybrid of traditional web pages that have revolutionized Web 2.0. Traditional web pages are "view only" and users are unable to interact directly with the content. Traditional web pages force the viewer to take as is. Blogs are a variation of web pages that are designed to allow contribution and communication between its viewers. With blogs, people are allowed to have input, and discussion. Instead of having a traditional web page with one author or creator, blogs allow for any subscriber to participate as an author or creator.