Week 8 F-I-N-A-L

I am glad to have had a group for more than a couple of weeks.  We have had weekly chats that have been not only productive, but helped me to feel like I truly have some peers that I can talk to. 

As we are all getting busier and busier with classes, work, and our lives, I think we are all becoming more flexible in trusting in the group and trusting that the work will all get done.  Right now, Chris is editing and putting it all together.  I feel anxious when I'm not able to help out with a certain part, but I'm also excited to see what he comes up with.  I am thankful for this group because they are willing to work, but don't get easily stressed out or overwhelmed.  And we have learned a few things along the way...

Week 7 Learning

I love when learning converges in various parts of my life.  This week it happened to be work and online classes.  I got to go to a conference in New York at Columbia's Teachers College.  It focused on content area (social studies and science) workshops.  The concepts taught there are simple, yet profound.  These concepts often go against the grain of test based learning and politically based educational methods. 

The readings this week, also brought into question the educational status quo.  Along with Papert, I agree that we need to change our teaching to fit the times and the technology available to us.  I am glad to have the opportunity to be trained in both online teaching and face to face teaching.  The more I am learning, the more I am realizing how in this day and age they connect.  In online courses, I often think about a face to face activity that can be re-created online, and vice versa for my face to face classroom.  Connections, connections, connections.

Week 6 Updates

This week was an interesting path towards a better understanding of our group final.  AIG has a weekly chat and we went back to square 1 and decided on a new topic, "From Cohorts to Cliques to Community." We split up some of the roles and worked on unraveling what our topic and paper would look like.

I have really enjoyed my group.  They have been so positive, despite how busy everyone has been.  We try to be open and honest in our discussions, so that we have a project we think we all can carry out well.  I think we have a great topic and think that we are now moving in the right direction.