Final Blog - 550

· My students are gaining 21st century skills by . . .

learning how to use spreadsheets to calculate statistical data, generate the graph and critical points (relative maxima and minima) of polynomial and trigonometric functions and how to apply these to real world problems.

writing and producing screen casts to explain how they solved a problem.

· I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am excited about . . .

the idea of teaching online. My district has a meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 2^nd (I think) to learn more about the new virtual school in our district. I wonder how many in my district are certified to teach math online? I am concerned about the challenge of teaching a subject that seems to be lagging behind its F2F counterpart as far as student success goes.

· My district involvement in online learning includes . . .

only aspirations at present.

· During the module I was excited to learn about . . .

all of the features when being the facilitator/moderator in Elluminate. Furthermore, I am interested in how to set up an LMS for a class that shows students completed work, scheduled work, grades and so forth. It was incredibly convenient and informative to have that in this module.

Week 5 Blog - 550

• In reflecting on my teaching experiences to date, I would say that the proportion of teacher centered versus student centered lessons has been …

99 to 1. And the vast majority of those student centered lessons have been developed while being enrolled in this program.

• I was able to identify more than one authentic assessment to measure mastery of a single concept lesson when I …

reflected on my time employed in the private sector. Every time I teach a new concept, I try to give examples of how to use it in the “real world”.

• The rubric I created for my lesson clearly defined expectations and scoring for the lesson so that my students could …

be confident of submitting work that would receive appropriate marks.

• While working on this module I had success/difficulty while doing something new involving …

differentiated instruction. Specifically, I have a very difficult time with varying expectations and not grading according to the way I have been conditioned to grade.

Week 4 Blog

· I can relate the examples of online learning to my own experience in the following way. . .

While being employed in former professions, I was introduced to using Microsoft Office Tools in different ways to make these jobs easier. This was quite a few years ago. Since then there has been an explosion of online tools and software packages to make aspects of occupations simpler and more efficient. I have been introducing my students to those tools and tying them into scenarios from real world professions that I know of.

· These are some problems I had navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards, can you help me with . . .

I haven’t really had any problems with the CMS that time and experimentation hasn’t resolved. What I want to know is the programming behind the display of grading.

· I can imagine using Elluminate Live! for a web conference in order to . . .

help students through problems that they are having with the current course work in the classes I am teaching.

· I tried something new while working on this module and it made me think that ...

Ken, you may have a more trying time viewing my submissions for week 4. In particular, when I submitted some of the work – rather than attaching a document containing the template used, I copied and pasted it. I am wondering how it will affect your ability to view it (It may be a pain in the _ _ _ to scroll back and forth to view them). It makes me think of how I will wish to have my future online students submit their work to be easiest for both parties involved.

Week 3 Blog - 550

What is the greatest challenge that I have encountered as an online teacher/facilitator and how did I manage it? (If you have not yet taught online what do you think would be the greatest challenge for online teachers/facilitators?).

A particular worry some potential problem that I have with 100% online at a distance schooling is ensuring a student’s submitted work is actually from that student. Having the students meet in a traditional classroom setting is the only way to guarantee the authenticity of this. For example, ACT and SAT, state board examinations, the Bar exams are all performed in person and not online to safeguard the results.

Some things that I feel are really important to consider about synchronous and asynchronous facilitation as I prepare to facilitate my threaded and web conference discussions are. . .

I am to be considered to be the “expert” on this subject - maybe not so much for the facilitation in this class, but when I am facilitating my own class in mathematics. There are contingencies to plan for in face to face instruction. I believe the planning (once I have my own online class) will be much more time consuming versus the traditional classroom instruction I am used to.

Furthermore, I wish to have my discussion last at least 15 minutes. A wise teacher once told me to plan content and the practice of it, at minimum, that lasts the entire class. One can always "cut back".

I choose my particular discussion topic because . . .

this is the wave of the future and I want to be ahead of the curve. Blended learning is my topic and I wish to move the classes I teach in the direction that will prepare my students the greatest for what they will encounter in the future.

One thing that I thought about when developing rubrics for the 2 different discussions is. . .

keep the rubrics as concise, but explanatory as possible.