My Final MEIT (Master's of Education in Instructional Technology) Blog Post

This blog post consists of multiple ramblings about my experience in Cardinal Stritch's MEIT (Master’s of Education in Instructional Technology) Program. Looking back through all 65 of my posts has allowed me to reflect on my growth as an individual and as a professional.
My first post contained a goal about what I wanted to learn from this program. I stated that I wanted to learn about how to integrate technology into my daily life and also into my classrooms. I wrote that I would like to learn more about web 2.0 tools, communication outlets, and other resources that I may not be aware of yet. I feel like I have met and surpassed my goal. I have learned about a ton of new resources, I have taken on new challenges, and I have also learned the true value of technology integration. 

Almost one year into the program, I needed to answer the following question: What item do you believe you can incorporate from this class into your professional or personal life and how will you ensure that you achieve the goal of incorporating it? I was required to answer this question in terms of a SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely) goal. It was at this point that I clearly remember deciding to stop discussing the benefits and possibilities of integrating technology and start utilizing them. My SMART goal outlined how I planned to flip my classroom. The remainder of this year included researching the flipped classroom concept and pursuing permission to pilot a flipped classroom for the next school year. This lead to the development of my presentation about flipped classrooms, the structure of my flipped classroom, and the progression of my flipped classroom. These became the groundwork for my vision and mission and the focus of my project for our culminating experience.

The culminating experience for this Master’s program allowed me to showcase what I have learned from the program and how it fits into my vision and mission of a flipped classroom. This project exemplifies what my experience in this program was about. It utilizes resources that I learned about to differentiate for my students and create a personalized learning experience. Both my project and my new found vision and mission are products of this program and I feel like both of these things will help me become a better educator.

Coming into this program I felt like I had a firm understanding of what technology integration was truly about. I felt like technology integration was about utilizing gadgets and software to engage a student. After spending a short time within the program, my understanding of technology integration had changed. My current understanding is that the integration of technology provides an opportunity to personalize a student’s learning experience through exploration, creation, and collaboration.
My understanding of technology integration has changed from simply keeping students invested through the use of gimmicks to keeping students invested through the personalization of his/her learning experience. The latter statement is far more powerful and has provided me with a vision and mission that I hope to maintain throughout my career.

Week 1 of CED 599

This is the first week of CEdO599 Culminating Experience - Digital Futures. Our objective is to create a project that we can utilize within our profession while showcasing what we have learned throughout this masters program. I am choose to focus on creating and managing lessons for my flipped classroom for the 2012-2013 school year. Check out the highlights of my project, including my SMART goals. 

This course provides me with such a great opportunity. It is incredibly valuable to work on something that I can utilize in my future. I am very excited to take what I learned from this program and integrate it into my career. One of the biggest challenges will be overcoming the frustration of independently learning about some of the technology resources that I am choosing to use. My largest source of anxiety will be figuring out how to successfully use moodle. I am however excited to take on the challenges that I may encounter and I am motivated by the thought of how this project can positively impact my students. 

Week 6 of CED 565

This was the final week of CED 599 Leadership and Planning. This week we were asked to reflect on the following questions. My responses follow each questions.

• Your definition of teacher leadership?
•  Leadership to me is about making the right decisions for your team. A leader should be informed when making choices. This is why so many leaders focus on data-driven decisions. Leaders are not only responsible for making decision, they are also responsible for implementing change. A leader must collaborate, plan, and communicate his/her decisions with the rest of the team. This is a vital process during the implementation of change. If the team does not "buy in", change will not occur. 

• How has your definition of leadership altered or been reinforced? Has your opinion of your leadership potential changed?
• My definition of leadership has evolved from a pure decision maker to a collaborator and initiator of change. I now realize the vital role of communication and collaboration that leaders must integrate. I also appreciate the difficulty that leaders experience when trying to implement change. 

• Do you agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within"?  If so, what will you do to help?
• I do agree that a lot of improvement with education can occur from within. The teachers have the know how and the ability to make a difference. I believe that the biggest obstacle to internal improvement is the resistance of change or the fear of the unknown. I think that a lot of the experienced teachers are comfortable with the way that they currently teach their lessons. These lessons may be effective and may have worked for years; unfortunately, if the world around us is changing and the teacher's lessons remain the same, then old lessons inevitably become inefficient. 
• The world is changing and we need to make sure that students receive the skills they need to succeed. I think that this concept is a big shift of thinking and therefore a struggle for experienced teachers. A student's experience at school use to be about the knowledge that students received. The internet now makes this same knowledge available to students at any time. I think that current teachers need to focus on providing students with the skills they need to succeed in the future. We need to instill curiosity, collaboration, and creativity within our students. They need to learn how to obtain and analyze information. They need to learn how to create solutions to real problems. These skills will allow them to succeed on their own in the future. 
• My role in this process is to remain current with new pedagogy. I need to stay in touch with the changes in the world so that my teaching methods can evolve with the world around us. I need to be a model for other teacher's so that may learn from my success and failure. I need to communicate and collaborate with others so that these changes can impact as many teachers and students as possible. This process will allow me to make the biggest impact on education. 

Week 5 of CED 565

This week we wrapped up the simulation game that we played and continued to look at change. We discussed changes that we have experienced and how we have responded to change. After reflecting on my experiences, I realized that I am generally open to change if it is presented to me in the correct fashion.   If I an not informed about the change or the cause for change, I usually resist it. If I am aware of the benefits and consequences of change, I can usually accept it. If I find value in the change, I become invested in it and advocate for the change. This can be a good and bad reaction. It is good because I can help make change occur. It can be bad because I can occasionally resist or commit to change without fully understanding all of the benefits and consequences.

This information is beneficial because I now am able to realize the impact that communication has on change. This lesson also resonated through out our simulation we had in class. We really needed to talk with various people numerous times before we were able to initiate change. As an educator that is trying to initiate change, I will need to make sure to communicate with all of the investors involved in the process. This will help people realize the cause of the change and the possible benefits. This will hopefully increase the rate at which change can occur. 

Week 4 of CED 565

This week focused on the implementation of change. We participated in a simulation game during class. The object of the game was to change the school district into a continuously improving learning community. It was our job to create intrest in this change and gain support. There were certain actions that we could take to try and initiate change. Each action had a result. We either influenced a person or not. We needed to continue trying different actions and steps until we got each person to shift. We completed one of three steps of the game. My team started out slowly, but then started to make progress. The key was to analyze the result and determine the order of who we should work with. I found the game interesting thus far. It certainly replicates some of the issues that occur when a person is trying to initiate change. It can be frustrating but if you believe the change is worthwhile, you must continue to fight. This was something that I learned as I worked on the implementation of my flipped classroom for next year.

I was not aware of the progression that was required to initiate this change. I realize the point of this progression is to make sure that one evaluates the change that he/she is trying to make. This is a safe guard that can prevent unnecessary change. This progression process requires a person to reflect and analyze their course of action. I found that this process helped strengthen my idea.

Week 3 of CED 565

This week's class focused on systems thinking, change, and generational influences.

Systems Thinking

The main point that I took away from this video is that if a business wants to succeed or improve, they need to focus on the entire system and not just specific departments or individuals. Even though the system is comprised of individuals, we need to recognize each individual's role in the system. It is important to understand how the individual interacts with others within his/her environment and how these interactions affect the success to the entire system. If there is an issue or weakness, we should not place the blame on one individual, we should embrace the issue as the system's problem and determine how we can change the interactions within the system to correct it.

I found this video interesting. It really changes the accountability within a work environment and completely contrasts the typical cut-throat mentality. This system concept is far more collective and therefore collaborative and I can see how this can lead to the advancement of the entire system. My only concern is the impact that the "weakest" individual can have on the system. This relates to the concept that you are only as strong as your weakest link. How would this collaborative model deal with a weak individual? Would they change the individual's role and responsibilities therefore changing his/her interactions within the system? We do not want one person to prevent the success of the group.

Overall, I realize that it is important to know when to focus on an individual's actions/results and when to focus on the systems goals. If a student is struggling to master a topic, I need to determine if the issue is derived from the student's actions or abilities or it is from the format that it was taught. I need to understand how the system affects the individual and how I can improve the interactions within the system to help the individual improve

Change - "Who Moved my Cheese?"

This was an interesting video that illustrates the necessity for change when we are in the pursuit of our goals. It addresses the issue of complacency that many of us reach when we obtain a particular comfort level with the way things are in our life. It demonstrates the need to change and adapt in order to remain successful.

I was definitely able to relate to this video as I reflected on all the last couple of years. I realize that I have had a lot of great ideas about how I can utilize all of the skills that I have obtained from this program, but I have yet to actually implement any major changes. I know that this will definitely change as I prepare to begin my flipped classroom model for next year.

Generational Influences - Tune in to what the new generation of teachers can do

This was an interesting article that highlights what the new generation of teachers can do and what they need to succeed. As a member of the millennial generation, I identified with this article. I think that this generations upbringing, will assist them with making drastic changes in the world of education. This is a generation that is comfortable with collaboration, technology, accountability, multitasking, and change. This means that they are willing to work with others and take on new challenges that will incorporate 21st century skills.

Week 2 of CED 565

This week was all about using the WINSS site to obtain data about schools and their performance. This was not the most intriguing topic for me. I did not really feel connected to the data and was somewhat uninterested with the process. I tend to do better with numbers when I collect the data and have a purpose to analyze the results.

I was however somewhat interested in how my school district performed. It will be interesting to reference this site in the futre as we begin the implementation of RTI. I am curious to see if we will be able to distinguish a noticeable difference before RTI and after a couple years of successful implementation.

It will also be interesting to examine trends with administration changes. We have had a lot of administration changes within the last five years. I would imagine that this would affect a districts ability to achieve any goals since the focus of the goals may change with the administration.

Overall, I examined my schools performance and was able to compare it to other districts. I did not notice any huge red flags from the data, but I am not entirely sure what I should be looking for either. I can see how this information could be useful for families when they are choosing a location to purchase a home in.

Week 1 of CEdO565 - Leadership and Planning

This was the first week of CED 565 leadership and planning. This week's blog is supposed to focus on how I currently lead in my school. My leadership within my school district has evolved quite a bit over the last 3 years. I am a member of the TILT (Technology Integration Leadership Team) and the RTI (Response To Intervention) team. Next year, I will be piloting a flipped chemistry class. I am also the Assistant Varsity Girls Basketball Coach.

The TILT team is managed by our technology coordinator. It consists of a collection of teachers that utilize technology within their classrooms. We discuss professional blogs and readings, share resources, pilot new tools, and provide assistance with technology implementation and problems. We meet for six half day sessions and several after school sessions.

The RTI team has a large impact on the day to day functions of our school. We make decisions about how our school is meeting the RTI requirement. We have initiated a resource time that has resulted in schedule changes and new teacher roles. We meet once a month to discuss the implementation of our program. I then lead my smaller RTI team group once a month to set goals and changes. I also attend the RTI CESA 1 sessions that focus on how to implement RTI.

The piloting of my flipped classroom has allowed me to demonstrate the skills that I have obtained from this cohort. The setup and preparation of this pilot has required a lot of research and collaboration with leaders within my school district. I am very excited to be one of two teachers that will be teaching online courses next year. I believe that this pilot is the best way for me to provide the best experience for all of my students.

I feel like coaching is a leadership position because of the large personal impact that it can have on students. This is my fourth year coaching and I feel like it has truly allowed me to connect to the students in our school and has also helped me become a stronger teacher.

Week 6 of CED 555

This is the final week of 555 and I think I just finished my portfolio. I am really glad that we had a class that provided us with support as we created our portfolios. I spent a lot of time on my portfolio's layout and I am really pleased with how it turned out. It was interesting going back through all of the courses that I have completed and reflecting on what I have accomplished. Feel free to check it out and leave a comment on my blog or within my portfolio.

Week 4 of CED 555

This week we discussed the concept of standards in class. It was an interesting discussion about how the concept of standards was developed, the use and implementation of standards, the measurement of meeting standards, and the roles that both local and national government play.

The history of standards was something that has never really crossed my mind. I never really thought about how corporate businesses are rated or evaluated using some form of standards and how this makes quality and service improve. This is a system that is designed to provide the best for the consumer so why not apply it to education so our students can have the best? I have always been aware of the Wisconsin standards and have understood their intentions. Standards are designed to improve the quality of the education that our students receive. The tricky part is who creates these standard and how do we evaluate them.

Our class discussion continued as we discussed the flaws with the concept that each individual state should create its own standards and utilize or adopt its own test to evaluate if students are meeting these standards. Standards were not unified because of the desire to have local control. This model resulted in an inaccurate way of measuring the success of our students across the nation. The rigor of the standards and tests varied for each state, therefore making the results rather meaningless. This issue resulted in the birth of the common core standards. The science department at my current school district is examining these standards and evaluating the gaps in our current curriculum. These common core standards at least allow us to have a consistency across all states. The next step is determining how students will be evaluated.

This led to an interesting discussion about testing and about how we will utilize the test results. We got into discussing adaptive testing. The MAPS testing is an example of this. The test will adapt based on the student responses. This allows us to identify what part(s) of the content the student specifically struggles with. Using a test to determine the student's weakness is great, but we need to focus on how to correct these gaps in their content knowledge. This brought us to the realization that quality common standards and adaptive testing should really be used to drive student instruction as opposed to measuring a school's or teacher's performance.

Overall, I thought that this was an interesting discussion. As I mentioned, my department at the school I am with is current looking at the common core standards. My portfolio project idea for this class is to actually use these standards as a part of the grading system. In the future, I hope to change my grading system to a standards based grading system using the common core standards. I would have the students demonstrate their proficiency by creating an electronic portfolio that contains the artifacts supporting their mastery. I feel as if this is an effective way to evaluate and demonstrate the depth of the content covered within the class.

CED 555 - Week 2

This week I needed to create a template of my Portfolio and I needed to create my Mission and Vision statement. These are the first steps towards the completion of my portfolio.

I chose to use Dr. Barbara Schroeder’s Technology Teaching Portfolio template to create my portfolio. I am modifying this template to meet the requirements of Cardinal Stritch. Utilizing this template will expedite the process of making each individual page and incorporating the navigation and site links. I hope to really personalize my portfolio as I plan to continue to utilize this as a way to showcase my experiences throughout my professional career.

At this point, I am not done with my Mission and Vision statement. The link is however connected to my google doc which will contain my completed mission and vision statement. You will also be able to view my completed mission and vision statement in my Portfolio.

CED 555 - Professional Portfolio Experience Week 1

This was our first week of CED 555 - Professional Portfolio Experience. This class will help us create our final Professional Portfolio that is required at the completion of our Graduate Program. This week we were required to research examples of other professional portfolios. We needed to create an annotated bibliography and a matrix that summarizes our results. Here is a link to the google doc that I created for this assignment.

This assignment was beneficial because it gave us a better understanding of what should be included in a professional portfolio and how it should be set up. I was really glad to discover Dr. Barbara Schroeder’s Technology Teaching Portfolio . Dr. Barbara Schroeder is a professor in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. The website that she created is actually a technology teaching portfolio template. This template will be quite useful, especially since I plan on utilizing the same ISTE standards for my own portfolio. Natashia Sylvia’s Portfolio was also beneficial. She utilized Dr. Barbara Schroeder’s portfolio template to create her own portfolio.

I look forward to creating my portfolio which will demonstrate all of the hard work and accomplishments that I have had throughout this graduate program. It will be a great way to reflect on and share my thoughts and resources with others.

Week 6 of CED 550

This weeks module was about online courses and the shift towards 21st century skills, my school districts current online course involvement, and the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin.

During the module I was excited to watch the Learning to Change/Changing to Learn video and the Shift Happens video. Videos like these always provide me with the inspiration I need to continue moving forward with the changes that I am trying to make within my own classroom. My favorite part of the learning to change/changing to learn video was the quote at the end. "This is a very exciting time for learning. It's the death of education but it's the dawn of learning, and that makes me very happy". This is a reflection of how we need to change and how this change is positive for our students.

We needed to complete a Scavenger Hunt to determine our districts involvement in online learning. I felt like my district is positively working towards the changes that we need to shift towards 21st century learning. This is a very slow process but I am glad that I am actively involved with this change and I am excited to pilot a flipped classroom next year.

My flipped classroom model will provide my students with an opportunity to gain 21st century skills by fostering their ability to connect, create, and collaborate in an online environment. The students will be utilizing Moodle as their main Learning Management System. This online environment will be a place to watch/read lectures, take assessments, collaborate on discussion boards, complete lab simulations, and share information. I hope to utilize in class time for collaboration on labs and homework. The pacing of the course will be determined by the student. This is a more student centered approach that will hopefully benefit my students and help them develop the necessary skills to become life long learners.

The last assessment that I completed this week was a review of the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin. It was interesting to read the concerns about virtual charter schools. I have not previously considered the financial concerns that are connected with this trend. I now understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned about the lack of focus on the benefits for students. It appears that most people are concerned with districts losing money to virtual schools instead of how a virtual school may benefit the student. Another concern is that outsiders may view virtual schools as a money making opportunity since they typically have lower costs of operation. My hope is that we get all of the political and financial aspects worked out so that we can focus on the most important issue, the students.

Week 5 of CED 550 - Collaborative

This week we listened to more presentations from our classmates. The focus of our asynchronous class was collaboration.

My experience with online communities has been positive. I have primarily experienced these communities through my grad work and I believe that this makes a difference. The communities that I have been a part of have consisted of people that are invested in what they do. They are interested in the topics and care about the group. This is what makes our group successful and my experiences positive.

I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is the chance to hear others' opinions. It is always great to hear different perspectives about a topic. Collaboration has allowed me to gain a more robust understanding of a variety of topics because I have been able to learn from others.

I believe the greatest challenge of collaboration is finding the time to work together. Even though the web 2.0 tools have drastically changed the way that we collaborate, the reality is that we still need to sit down and make a conscience effort to communicate with others. Resources such as google docs allow us to collaborate asynchronously, but we still need to take that step. The hardest part about collaboration is that your group is as weak as your weakest group member. If someone does not share, the group falters.

My biggest concern regarding social development and socialization is that individuals who thrive in an online environment may not be able to communicate their thoughts when they are face-face in a large group. I find that it is easier to text, email, and post my thoughts than it is to vocalize these same ideas when I am in a large group. If an individual chooses to only share his/her thoughts through technology, he/she may not be able to communicate outside the online world. This would be a major disservice to our students.

Week 4 of CED 550

The focus on this week was student-centered online learning, differentiation, authentic assessments, and rubrics. We needed to create a Student Centered Lesson with Differentiation, Authentic Assessment, and a Rubric. I chose to create a lesson on Charles' Law using online lab simulations.

As a science teacher, I believe that students need to experience the content that we are discussing. Labs are an important piece of the learning process. While working on this module I was glad that I had success finding a lab replacement. The online lab simulation was a good replacement and it allows the students to kinesthetically explore the concepts.

This week in class was also my chance to facilitate both a synchronous and asynchronous discussion on blended learning. Here is the 15 minute presentation that I gave on Blended Learning. Here is the topic for my asynchronous discussion. I felt like both the synchronous and asynchronous discussions went well. I was glad that I chose to incorporate a video into the discussion and it seemed liked the topic was well received by my colleagues.

I think I could have improved my synchronous lesson by utilizing a reporter instead of having all of the students write on the whiteboard at once. I found this to be overwhelming and I do not think that the students were able to read all of the good comments that their colleagues posted. In the future, I would also like to use the poll features that Eluminate offers. It is a great way to get anonymous feedback from the students and it also provides great discussion points.

CED 550 - Week 3

This week we prepared to lead a 15 minute discussion on a topic of our choice in one of the upcoming lectures. We also need to prepare an asynchronous discussion thread that corresponds to our topic. The topic that I chose was blended learning. I choose my particular discussion topic because I am interested in flipping my classroom within the next 3 years.

One of the greatest challenge that I am anticipating as an online teacher/facilitator is keeping tabs on all student activity. I will need to carefully monitor the chat window, emoticons, hand raising, technical issues, and whiteboard. I hope to manage this challenge by providing clear directions for student activity and allowing them to control the flow of the lesson. I plan on regulating student conversation by requiring students to raise their hands when they want to talk. I may even utilize the mic restrictions that eluminate offers. I also hope to keep the students engaged. I plan on having all the students use the whiteboard to complete a graphic organizer. While the students are completing this task, I will be able to monitor the chat window, emoticons, hand raising, and technical issues.

As I prepared for my synchronous and asynchronous lesson, I realized that planning a lesson for an online learning environment is very similar to planing a lesson for a regular classroom. Preparation is the main focus of all good lessons (in class or online). I really needed to take the time to research my topic and think about the best way to present my material. I needed to consider my audience and determine the best possible way to keep them engaged. This is a similar check off that I use when preparing any lesson.

We also needed to create rubrics to evaluate the synchronous and asynchronous discussions. My focus for creating these rubrics was to keep it simplistic and easy to evaluate. I wanted to have clearly defined ranges that would allow me to quickly and easily evaluate student participation. I wanted it to be as clear cut as possible.

That is my plan for my synchronous and asynchronous lesson. Check my lesson and my discussion topic. Feel free to give any feedback.

CED 550 - Week 2

This post will discuss a list of statements/questions that we are supposed to be able to answer after this weeks class. I wrote my response below each question.

Identify at least two synchronous and two asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for your targeted online learners.

• Two synchronous online learning tools that I could use with my students are Eluminate live! and Google + Hangouts with the interactive shared whiteboard.
• Two asynchronous online learning tools that I could use are my moodle page or my edmodo page.

List four different types of activities that you might use with your targeted online learners and identify an appropriate online tool to use in implementing that activity.

• Student discussions about Labs - I would facilitate this through the forums activity that moodle provides
• Screencast homework tutorials - I would use screener or Eluminate live! to have the students demonstrate how to do the homework. I chose these two options because they are web based and don't require any software installation.
• Blogs - I would have the students use the wiki feature in moodle because it is protected
• Lab Simulations - I would use http://phet.colorado.edu to complete online lab simulations that demonstrate concepts discussed in class

Is my initial contact warm and inviting? Are there things I did particularly well or could do better in the future? Is my initial contact clear and concise and yet user friendly? What are some strategies that help to format your contacts to make them as clear and concise as possible?

• Here is my initial contact to students about our online course. Read it and let me know if I have satisfied the questions above.

CED 550 - Week 1

This is the first week of CED 550 - Facilitating Online Learning. This course is designed to develop the skills of an effective online instructor. This week we focused on the similarities and differences of online learning, the strengths and weakness of online learning, and how to use Eluminate (a synchronous online learning environment). The main focus of this week's blog is how I can relate the examples of online learning to my own experience.

I have taken a quite a few online course prior to this one. This course is unique because it allows me learn about the skills and the process of creating an online learning environment. I find this to be of great value because I am interested in creating a blended learning environment within my own classroom. One thing that I enjoyed was having the moderator controls in eluminate during class this week. Eluminate is a great way to meet with a group of students and interact in a synchronous online learning environment. Moderators can truly control and guide a productive lesson in an online environment. This is something that I hope to utilize more as I explore the option of a blended learning environment.

I also looked at interactive online science lessons from the online learning gallery. The specific lessons were not as useful as I hoped because they did not relate to my subject area or age level. I did however find them to reinforce the benefits of interactive online learning. This is a great way to test student comprehension of content. Whether it is a quiz, memory game, or labeling activity; all of these activities allow the student to apply their knowledge and receive feedback. I have used interactive simulations from http://phet.colorado.edu/ within my classroom. These have been a great online lab alternative. I hope to continue to explore and discover more simulations and webquests so that I can incorporate them into the online learning aspect of my class.

CED 535 - Week 6: How I plan to flip my Classroom.

This week we needed to answer the following question: What item do you believe you can incorporate from this class into your professional or personal life and how will you ensure that you achieve the goal of incorporating it? If you can discuss it in terms of being a SMART goal for incorporating.

• S Specific - What exactly will you do?
• M Measurable - How will you be able to prove it was done?
• A Attainable - Will you have the resources and time, what might you have to do to make it occur?
• R Realistic - Make sure it is doable, you certainly can add something to a lesson plan or work item, you cannot get to the moon.
• T Timely - Assign a timeline - when will this be done by?

Goal: The concept that I chose to incorporate into my classroom is, screencasting/podcasting. This is something that I envision both myself and my students participating in.

I hope to do more screencasting of my classroom content. This year I specifically want to focus on skills that are not easily translated from the notes (determining significant figures, electron configurations, using Lewis dot structures for ionic/covalent bonding, nomenclature, graph analysis, and math problems). I plan on making the instructional videos accessible on our moodle site so that students can view them at later time if they need assistance.

I also plan on having the students create videos to demonstrate the labs that we are doing in class. The students can then upload the videos to our moodle site and the class can comment about what they learned. This is also a great way to demonstrate the labs for students that wree absent.

My long term goal is to make all of my classroom content available through online resources and screencasting. The students would be able to access these resources and instructional video lessons online so that they can learn the content outside of the classroom. This would allow me to dedicate in class time towards labs, projects, collaborative learning, and individual assistance. Essentially I hope to flip my classroom.

Measuring my Progress: Right now I am focusing on the first part of my goal. This year I hope to create at least one video lesson for each of my chemistry units. I also hope to have the students create at least one lab video for each of the units. This means that the students and I would need to create 9 video each (18 total videos). I believe that this is a realistic goal for this year and I hope to begin working on this during second semester.

As for my long term goal, I hope to continue to work on this process each year. I hope to continue to add more videos each time I go through a course. I hope to have my classroom completely flipped by the beginning of the 2014 school year.

This class has provided me with a lot of useful resources and the motivation that I needed to start making changes within my classroom. I now have a clear goal and timeline for the changes that I want to make. I believe that this process will help make my students become better thinkers and learners. It allows them to move through the course at their own pace and requires them to be aware of their academic needs and behaviors. This is a supportive system that helps individualize learning for each student.

Wish me luck!

Week 5 of CED 535

This week we needed to explore a new Web 2.0 application that we havent discussed in class, we needed to continue to work on our google site, and we started collecting our work for our portfolio.

We were given a few different resources to find new Web 2.0 tools (Go2Web20.net, All Things Web 2.0, Listio, Tech-lou-ology). This list of resources has a great value. I have actually bookmarked all of these website using Diigo so that I can reference them later and find new resources to incorporate into my own classroom. The Go2Web20.net has a great filter tool that lets you find the specific resources you need in an easy fashion. The All Things Web is nice because it has lists of the best voted and most popular Web 2.0 tools. Listio allows you to filter Web 2.0 tools by using keywords. They also post new Web 2.0 apps and reviews. The Tech-lou-ology website is actually our professor's, Louis Loeffler, blog. There are a variety of posts relating to Web 2.0 tools and reviews.

After a quick search, one of the resources I found to be interesting is bubblecomment. This is a cool way to insert video commentary onto webpages. This method is far more personal and really stands out. I hope to use this with my own website for the South Milwaukee Girls Basketball team.

We also needed to collect some of our best work from the graduate program and place it in a folder. This is the first step towards creating our portfolio. While this step seems like additional work now, I am glad that they are having us contribute to our portfolio so far in advance. This will hopefully make the process easier down the road.