“With a little help from my friends,” comes to mind. But seriously folks, we are truly only going to get there if we as peers continue to challenge each other and support each other in this quest.
We as teachers are continually told that the practice of, ‘Teach, Practice, Test,’ is outdated yet that is what most teachers, including myself in some disciplines, continue to do. It is only by continuously taking new risks and trying new things that we are going to break out of this mold.
Just this week I decided that I was tired to the traditional aforementioned method and decided to try something new. I told the students that they were to work with a partner to create a lesson on Exponents (p.49), pick out questions, and design a short quiz which they will then present to a set of peers. After the initial shock of not knowing what the heck was going on, I have seen some amazing learning come out of this process. The conversations and comments that I have had over the last few days have been phenomenal. Comments such as: “You do this every night?”; “I so got this!”; and “This is fun!” are quotes that any teacher would love to hear during their Math class.
The concept went so well that the student teacher of one of my peers dropped her lesson for the next day and attempted it as well.
It is this sort of risk-taking and sharing of ideas that will help us “Get there”.
Six weeks into OLTD and we have already been introduced to some of the finest minds in the field of online learning. We have been paired up with several of our peers on various assignments and have started to create a bond that I have found to be stronger than in many of my previous F2F classes. These connections as well as the resources that we have had shared such as Delicious and Wikispaces are the tools that, I believe, will help us reach our goal of becoming inspiring online educators.
My question is whether or not I will actually know when I “Get There.” I have a feeling, or perhaps a hope, that this will be a continual process from now until the end of my career.
We as teachers are continually told that the practice of, ‘Teach, Practice, Test,’ is outdated yet that is what most teachers, including myself in some disciplines, continue to do. It is only by continuously taking new risks and trying new things that we are going to break out of this mold.
Just this week I decided that I was tired to the traditional aforementioned method and decided to try something new. I told the students that they were to work with a partner to create a lesson on Exponents (p.49), pick out questions, and design a short quiz which they will then present to a set of peers. After the initial shock of not knowing what the heck was going on, I have seen some amazing learning come out of this process. The conversations and comments that I have had over the last few days have been phenomenal. Comments such as: “You do this every night?”; “I so got this!”; and “This is fun!” are quotes that any teacher would love to hear during their Math class.
The concept went so well that the student teacher of one of my peers dropped her lesson for the next day and attempted it as well.
It is this sort of risk-taking and sharing of ideas that will help us “Get there”.
Six weeks into OLTD and we have already been introduced to some of the finest minds in the field of online learning. We have been paired up with several of our peers on various assignments and have started to create a bond that I have found to be stronger than in many of my previous F2F classes. These connections as well as the resources that we have had shared such as Delicious and Wikispaces are the tools that, I believe, will help us reach our goal of becoming inspiring online educators.
My question is whether or not I will actually know when I “Get There.” I have a feeling, or perhaps a hope, that this will be a continual process from now until the end of my career.