My experiences in ITEC 7400 (21st Century Teaching and Learning) were initially daunting. The material, the textbook are marvelous resources that I will use for months to come. I would say years to come, but I know that technology changes so fast, some of the ideas and resources will disappear or merge before I even finish the Ed.S. program!
Creating a unit plan for my engaged learning project was daunting. I was first challenged simply by coming up with an idea, and then completely stumped by developing activities and strategies that will enable implementation of this project in school. Fortunately, the coaching process was extremely helpful in helping me see where and how to expand the idea. In a face-to-face situation, however, I doubt I would have received the number of rapid fire questions, and questions about the project are really what drove my work in developing activities and procedures in depth. I realize that I assume a high level of prior knowledge among my students, and in order for students to have the best experience from the project, the resources and activities need to be well organized.
My friends and I had discussed whether the structured coaching experience required for this course and this project would be valuable, knowing that all of us had a rubric to guide our responses, and that we were expected to use some of those phrases. However, I discovered that even with recommended verbiage, it was empowering to read my peers’ supportive comments and suggestions. Their suggestions helped me add detail and clarification to my engaged learning project, and ultimately I crafted an unit plan that I am pr . Sometimes, however, it was difficult to find enough superlatives to adequately praise my peers, all of whom have much more experience with lesson planning than I.
One thing my classmates and I noticed was the seamless connection between required coursework for all three classes. It can't have been coincidence that we would have skills practices in the multimedia class that would be directly related to crafting our engaged learning projects. The unit on feedback in the education course was invaluable as I tried to craft useful comments for my classmates' projects, knowing that content-related feedback is most important.
My greatest concern in taking on the “coach” mantle is that I not “overdo” and offer too many suggestions and overwhelm my teaching colleagues at school. I am excited to be able to share so many more new resources with my colleagues.
Creating a unit plan for my engaged learning project was daunting. I was first challenged simply by coming up with an idea, and then completely stumped by developing activities and strategies that will enable implementation of this project in school. Fortunately, the coaching process was extremely helpful in helping me see where and how to expand the idea. In a face-to-face situation, however, I doubt I would have received the number of rapid fire questions, and questions about the project are really what drove my work in developing activities and procedures in depth. I realize that I assume a high level of prior knowledge among my students, and in order for students to have the best experience from the project, the resources and activities need to be well organized.
My friends and I had discussed whether the structured coaching experience required for this course and this project would be valuable, knowing that all of us had a rubric to guide our responses, and that we were expected to use some of those phrases. However, I discovered that even with recommended verbiage, it was empowering to read my peers’ supportive comments and suggestions. Their suggestions helped me add detail and clarification to my engaged learning project, and ultimately I crafted an unit plan that I am pr . Sometimes, however, it was difficult to find enough superlatives to adequately praise my peers, all of whom have much more experience with lesson planning than I.
One thing my classmates and I noticed was the seamless connection between required coursework for all three classes. It can't have been coincidence that we would have skills practices in the multimedia class that would be directly related to crafting our engaged learning projects. The unit on feedback in the education course was invaluable as I tried to craft useful comments for my classmates' projects, knowing that content-related feedback is most important.
My greatest concern in taking on the “coach” mantle is that I not “overdo” and offer too many suggestions and overwhelm my teaching colleagues at school. I am excited to be able to share so many more new resources with my colleagues.