Whats Going On Now

Hardly any parents are on anymore. I will upload pictures and send out an email this coming week. I cannot complete my TIP until the last day in May.
I actually look forward to using Moodle next year and using the results from this year to implement it better. I think this is what we learn as teachers, change what doesn't work.

Late Fall - Wow!

Parent were using Moodle quite independently. I had parents asking each other questions and sharing advice however, I began to notice that only certain parents were using it. I shall not jump to the conclusion that the other parents were not interested in helping their child at home but I believe the true reason is that the parents who logged on were comfortable with technology. The other parents who did not participate did so in the classroom. This is okay because it gave both parents the ability to volunteer and and be apart of the classroom but from different distances.

Fall Observations: Early Steps

Wow! By October I was up and running. I invited my parents to a mandatory meeting to introduce one important aspect of assessment, Creative Curriculum, that is put in place by the district and Moodle. I sat with parents and discussed the use of Moodle. I wanted the parents to see how we could communicate with each other and how documents and resources could easily be shared. Quickly parents began to use Moodle soon after I introduced it to them.
Included with the meeting, I had the parents complete the initial survey and sign a notice that stated that they knew I was doing teacher inquiry. They also approved whether info could be used to share among my MSU colleagues.

September 2, 2007

State 1: pre - implementation

During the summer, I worked on my new classroom homepage, wrote my teacher inquiry plan, explored moodle and researched some web hosting companies. I decided to choose Canaca which was recommended by a MSU colleague.
Having never owned server space, I contemplated how I would take this big "tech" jump and accomplish such a project that I have always thought was "out of my league". I'm a web 2.0 kinda girl - but only in a USER way...

This week I started uploading my class web pages to my server space and yesterday I successfully installed moodle. I started setting it up and playing around with it a bit. My site isn't totally up but for interested folks take a look.

www.my-teacher-online.com

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July 19, 2007 Post from Word Press

Yapping About Year 2 In Review

The second year of my masters program is drawing to an end. I remember how I felt last year about this time, leaving Plymouth yearning for more tech knowledge - well at least my 5 grand worth of it. Last year I left with a brand new list of vocabulary.... podcast, css, fireworks, interactive whiteboards, rss feeds, blogs, audacity, .mp4, .aud, dreamweaver... this year I brought that list back (with even more terms) and did more than defined them - I applied them.

This year, especially the last 2 weeks, my learning curve has shifted quite vertically. During the last weekend, after the resuscitation of my HP, I managed to complete a vodcast and frantically transfer thoughts, theories, and best practices into 2 documents - all due within 24 hours of each other. 24 hours ago, I literally had nothing on paper. I knew I shouldn't have fallen for Joan's comforting attempt "...don't even worry about the Teacher Inquiry until Wednesday." I'm a sucker - I always believe the teacher! I relaxed and then Wednesday came and my Vista went "hasta la vista"! I somehow accomplished both papers ... okay, so I wouldn't use the term accomplished ... I uploaded both papers. My heart skipped a beat - and went thud twice and puttered for a second - strangely it made the same sound that Brandon made during his Wimba Voice feedback of my vodcast- as I pushed the button that read something like this: "Pushing this button will submit your crappy document and you will never get it back. In fact Joan and Brandon will forever wonder if you even learned anything this summer and you will get an F! This IS the point of no return!"

I am still not sure if my Authentic Learning Lesson is at all applicable. It was very hard to write a paper about using technology in the preschool classroom to create authentic learning since... well... I do it all the time - without technology.

The theory part was very interesting. I enjoyed collaborating with other educators and listening to their opinions and experiences. On the topic of TCPK... it is probably the easiest hardest concept to explain. Poor Joan. I wish we could have discussed R.A.T a bit more. I don't know where I was during the discussion... either trying to figure TCPK out or grieving over the death my grandma. Timing. And that brings me to the Wiki...that's memorable and a bit embarrassing even if I wasn't the culprit or the wiki. I am deathly afraid of wikis now! Thank goodness my students cant type complete sentences!!!

I have a list of projects that will keep me busy using and exploring technology - I am currently revamping my classroom homepage - I am purchasing my very first server! - I will be setting up my Moodle site for my inquiry - Organizing at least one teacher inservice on a Web2.0 component - Sponsoring a school improvement student group to collaborate with Stephanie and her inquiry using Blackboard -and teaching.

I was inspired this year.

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