Reflection: LE 4.9

I really enjoyed the Leadership article by Lisa Mills.  The 6 qualities are absolutely essential to being a successful leader.  A few of them really helped me reflect upon myself.  I should have #4 posted on my wall to remind myself that I do NOT know it even though I think I do most of the time.  This ties in with #2, I need to identify my strengths and weaknesses and play to my strength, yet continue to work on my weaknesses.

From the group activity, I learned that it can be hard to setup something without F2F.  Something such as Google Docs is still not bullet-proof.  There are just too many variables for it to be reliable.  Which is why a backup plan should always be ready when we are dealing with Technology.

I'm still not "sold" on planning, but the 3 Year Plans from others did make me see some value in having a long range plan.  I might never be able to convince myself that it is useful, but at least I can see why it's important.

I thoroughly enjoyed this course, and it has helped me grow as leader in my school.  The thing I liked most about this is most of the assignments are practical.  I was able to use it for my school one way or another.  So the time that I spent on them is not "wasted" for one purpose only. 

Thanks a lot Rod, appreciate your help and advice. Looking forward to Part 3 already!

Elton

Reflection LE 3...

Wow what a session, really wish I didn't have to finish half of it in one night.  Learned quite a bit from all the different articles.

I especially liked this quote from Mary Ann Wolf's article, "A stand-alone workshop has less than a 5% chance of actually changing teacher practice in the classroom.”

Really makes me wonder why so much time and money is spent on PDs without any follow-ups.

Another thing that I ranted about is how little Math Software has improved compared to the video game industry.  The gap has widened significantly where it is no longer considered "Stealth Learning".

Reflection LE 2.10 #2 (SAMR Model)

The SAMR Model helped me classify some of my lessons/activities/projects and also allowed me to set goals in improving them. I also look at this model as a growth spectrum.  Most of us start off by using technology as a substitute. (e.g. Microsoft Office instead of pencil and paper) Then we find out new features such as spell check that improves the experience. Learning from our new discovery, we go back and redesign our lesson to integrate some of the new features. And at the end, we have created something totally new. In the future, I'd like to look deeper into this model and further improve my teaching.

From our class discussion, I realize that everyone is at a different point on their journey in Learning Technology.  Technology is changing every day, and we are all learning new things.  For me, it gave me an opportunity to help solve some of the problems and issues that may show up when I bring in some of these new programs to my school.  It is truly amazing to work with people who appreciate technology and willing to learn together.

Reflection LE 2.10

'Necessary for some, good for all'

During LE2, that has always been in the back of my mind.  It seems like everything we did could be used for everyone.  Which is why I often wonder why do we bother specifying certain technology for Special Need students?  The only thing that I could think of is funding.  Because it is "necessary for some", those should have priority over the rest.  If we take money out of the equation, everyone would have their own personal device that allows them to learn effectively.  This device could be different depending on their learning style and what is needed from the curriculum.

The picture above shows a beautiful futuristic classroom, but is that an ideal place for learning?  I remember watching this video during my interview and thinking to myself how unrealistic it was.  I'm not talking about the technology either.  If I have a classroom filled with future Computer Engineers, this would be perfect.  But we have to keep in mind that not everyone learns best with technology. So going back to the original quote, I'd like to change it to Necessary for some, not necessarily good for all. We are in the age of differentiated learning, while Technology is a great learning tool, we have to remind ourselves so that we don't turn it into crutches. We can't just hand everyone an iPad and expect them to magically learn.  If it was as easy as that, we would all be out of a job.

Reflection of 'Reflection is part of your work'

My uh-huh moment from this article was the part when George started saying how blogging helped him organize and reflect on all his initiatives. Similar to George, I'm all over the place.  When something new comes up, I want to try it right away and never really have a chance to reflect on our last "new thing".  Using a blog, it gives us a chance to go back and look at what we have done.  That "digital footprint" acts like a diary for us to collect our thoughts and improve what we have.