new skills

I had such a sense of achievement when I made the powerpoint and incorporated a hyperlink and embedded a document. I also enjoyed looking at other participant's work. They had wonderful activities. If more of us used projects, how exciting teaching, and learning would be.
I have a new feeling of excitement for my teaching.

I had a really good time developing my unit. I have gained extra knowledge on how to further integrate technology into my lessons. My students will benefit from my newfound knowledge, and I have become/will become a better teacher because of it.

P.S. I learned how to put a link into my messages. Woo-hoo!!!!!!

April Sarpy

Reflection

While working on my brochure, I started to see some of the missing links in my students 'buying in' to my lessons. I think the Unit questions, Content questions, and skills emphasis are key; they gave me an opportunity to really think about the assignment and decide from the beginning what I wanted the students to comprehend and master. Creating a 'promotion' like this for students kind of takes them off guard. They really don't know what to expect, but they do know what will be expected of them throughout the lesson, unit, learning process, etc.

In short, I had a really good time creating this document, and since it was based on a lesson that is coming up, I will be using this idea.

Project based learning

I have always enjoyed doing projects with my students, but the info. presented in Intel is much more thorough and technology based. I think this will be a good thing for my students. Many do not have access to technology nor do they have aspirations for careers that could be presented in projects. Projects in physics or chemistry will hopefully give them new insights and applications for what we are learning, and they will enjoy what they are learning.

Tonight's class was again a wonderful learning experience. Each time I have come, I've left with new ideas and new ways to access information that is relevant to instruction. Creating the publication was an interesting process. Having the templates available to create the newsletter and published examples were very helpful in starting this process. I learned how to send pictures that I found on the internet to my document and place them on my newsletter. I've learned that I need to keep my flash drive with me at all times as well, so that I can save information on it instead of emailing myself : )

reflection

Wow,what I've learned so far...making folders, opening, building newsletters, what kind of project unit might I use? Wow, alot covered in just a few hours! Time passed quickly!!!
That's a good sign!!! I'm actually wandering what next week will intel! :-)

My role as an instructional designer

I am really excited about the term "instructional designer." It sounds so much better than teacher. I really think this is a more accurate term to describe my role in the classroom. I spend every day working with a wide variety of students with different needs. I am constantly trying to adjust my lessons to meet these varying needs. I use many approaches in my classroom as well as an abundance of resources. From the textbook to the Promethean board- every day holds something new in my classroom. I honestly feel that my students are highly engaged most of the time (we all have our moments) because of my love for and use of technology. I don't just take a lesson, present it and test it. I "design" my instruction based on my students' prior knowledge, while keeping my "end" goal in mind!

Newsletter

A teacher at my school, who started the same year I did, wrote a newspaper to her parents every six weeks, to give them a heads up about what is going on in her class, as well as due dates and any extra-curricular activities that were going on at school.

I was always jealous of her ability to spend so much time and obvious effort on something that I now know is very easy to do. The fact that I teach many more classes than she did no longer seems like such a barrier to my ability to make easy, quick, and thoughtful parent contact that I believe the parents would appreciate.

My plan now is to be sure to have something similar to the newsletter I worked on today ready for Open House on Monday. We will have to see if that works out.

My other plan is to have my students write short pieces for the newsletter, and each six weeks focus on a different student's work, or contact the clubs and organizations on campus and have my students make a newsletter or brochure that the front office could offer to prospective students.

What a girl wants

Ah, just figured out how to sign in as me. Hey, somebody toss me another D.P.

I think this is going to be great. The Dr. Peppers are great too. -Justin B

Respond to this blog entry by clicking on Comments below.

Include in your reply at least one topic you are considering for the unit you will create during this course. Indicate your unit topic, grade level, and subject area. Explain your topic idea. Include other ideas for topics.

Welcome to the Essentials Online Blogging Community!
Our Essentials Blog Portal consists of two layers. This is the first layer. On our homepage you will find prompts for discussion from your facilitator in which all participants will respond. The second layer consists of the individual blogs from participants in the course. Each participant is the author of a personal blog and controls the content.

During this course, your blog is mainly used as a personal space to add your reflections on the educational ideas presented and also to engage in online conversations with colleagues.
As we experiment with this space, think about the potential for collaboration and learning in the classroom.
Happy blogging!