“Time flies when you are having fun” sure pertains to this semester. I was so hesitant to start back to school after being out of college for almost 7 years and I was even more scared to take an online class. It turns out that I was ok and didn’t really need to be that worried. I did learn that I took for granted the extra time I had when I was in school. It was a challenge to figure out how to work a full-time job, a part-time job, go to school, and pay attention to my home life. I am finally getting the hang of it all after 15 weeks and now it is changing again and I am going to have to figure it out again with all the new classes.
This class definitely taught me so much valuable information that I am sure I will use once I get in the classroom. At times I wished that I was actually in the field so I could practice on my kids to make sure I was coming up with ideas that were actually interesting to them and at other times I was glad that I didn’t have kids that really needed the information because I struggled on a few of the modules. I also think that it would have been helpful to have some kind of teacher guide or a text book to look at when figuring out what information to use for each module. I had the grade level indicators and benchmarks to go off of but it would have been nice to see exactly what the kids were being taught.
One of my favorite assignments was the interactive power point module. I made a jeopardy type game where my students needed to give an answer to the questions and I was actually pretty proud of the way the final product turned out. I went to work and showed my boss and he was really excited to learn how to make it interactive. I also really liked the webquest module. It was a lot of work coming up with the ideas and finding the proper resources but actually making the webquest was pretty easy. If I am lucky enough to end up teaching a 7th or 8th grade earth science class I might actually be able to use it. This would definitely meet all the GLI’s that are required for identifying types of rocks.
This class was very informative and very time consuming. I am glad that I spent the time needed and did the best I could on every project. The modules will definitely be revisited and I hope to be able to share them with some of my other teacher friends who have never heard of some of them before.
THANKS!!!!!!
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand where you are coming from. I have been out of college for ten years and have three young kids, it is crazy, but somehow we manage to get it all done and make it all work!! I agree about the assignments, the toughest part for me was just coming up with the ideas for the lessons and finidng the information. Once I had all that I was good to go! I am excited to use some of these assignments in my class room, I think the kids would really love them! Good luck with the rest of your school!
Valerie Knittel