H.+FUTURE+GOALS

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MUSINGS ABOUT MY ONLINE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE: This capstone course was tough! Having said that, I also learned a lot! The course I was a TA in, “Marketing and the Internet,” was an example of a very well laid out class taught by an excellent online teacher. I know all my VHS colleagues did not have the same experience in their TA class. My course was so relevant and interesting. The students really enjoyed taking the class and were thoroughly engaged. I have learned that this engagement and relevance is what can motivate students to be successful in the online environment. The course also had varied activities and different types of assessments….these are more components of a great online course. Students had many opportunities to interact with each other and learn from each other. They were not, however, responding to each other with the “passion” I would have liked to see. I learned that students do not post with the same frenzy as graduate students! Students in online classes are really very much like students in f2f classes. They need direction, encouragement, motivation and accountability. I have also learned how much work facilitating an online class is! Facilitators have to be careful not to be online 24/7. Having very definite office hours is necessary. Having very well defined expectations for students to follow is also important. If the students know exactly what they must do to be successful in the class that cuts down on the time the facilitator uses to clarify assignments/projects. I found that the assessment I did for my online class was difficult. This was partly true because I was jumping into one assessment in an ongoing course. I wanted to grade the assignment with the consistency of my mentor teacher. The rubric became all important. I think that in a f2f, my assessments take into account the attitude and work ethic s of my students. This was not always visible to me in the online class (I only had so long to learn about the students). So, therefore, the rubric was a very definite guideline that needed to be adhered to. I am also very grateful to have participated in these five courses and to have learned from very knowledgeable classmates! I will improve my teaching because of these classes, and who knows what will be next! MY FUTURE GOALS: I would like to get involved with online teaching in the future. I have broached the topic with our superintendent, but right now all conversations center on money. I now realize how very challenging and time consuming online teaching can be. I am concerned about the time factor involved…especially when life gets in the way! I know I will continue to try to grow as a teacher (even after 32 years). I will try new methods, technologies, and Web 2.0 tools in my classroom as much as I can. One of my students said yesterday that I //was not the type of teacher who needed to take classes…there are other teachers in the building who should be learning new tricks//…well, I will take that as a compliment. But there is no stopping me now!