As I understand it, this will be my last entry. My only regret about having taken this class is that I don't have regular access to practice on the various technologies that we have been learning.
One great gift I have is a massive curiousity. Once something sparks my interest, I will pursue it until satisfied. (My curiousity has a downside too, if ya know what I'm saying...but we'll leave that for another time.) So even though it has been rather tricky for me to learn a lot of this stuff, I have kept at it & it's begun to pay off faster than I thought.
I have been using my Freshmen as my ginny-pigs for how I will use Moodles in the future. Now, the other teachers in the World History are getting curious about Moodles. I will begin training my history class on the tech. the first week of the new semester and begin experimenting with curriculum ideas. By the beginning of next year I think we should have some solid cirriculum for all of Wayzata. It's pretty neat to be in on the ground floor.
On top of that, and I know that we didn't study this in the academy course but it is still an offshoot of sorts, I have been learning more about using Power Point in the classes & getting the kids to learn it. In fact, I am working on a long term project to have all the major world religions on Power Point. I have virtually completed one on Islam, and if I do say so myself...it is AWESOME!
What I feel the secret to learning any of this stuff is this: "Let go of your fear & embrace your mistakes." The biggest problems I have seen in the classroom are when certain students can't figure out how to make something work, or understand it in a matter of seconds, then they give up & pout.
I've been telling the kids to make a lot of mistakes because that is the best way to learn. I make a big habit out of pointing out all the ones I make to try and model it for them. Speaking of which, I made a whopper last wednesday. After finishing my power point on Christianity I accidently saved something else over it...and it was to be shown in class the following day.
At any rate, I still think it's a bit of a shame that things can't be the way they used to be & life was simpler. However, that ain't the way the world works. Since there is all this new technology roaring at us, we might as well take the opportunity to learn it and see how we can make it "teach." For some of my students, this is the only chance they get to experiment with this stuff, so I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't give them a chance with it. Plus, the fact of the matter is that it's just a lot of fun. It really is, and isn't that the best way to get people to learn?
Peace, yo.
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