Week 5 Assignment, Part II: Course Reflections

WOW!! This was hard...but what a sense of relief and feeling of accomplishment when it's all done!! Let's start with question #1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? Honestly, the outcome that I envisioned was just an ordinary online course with your busy work and that I would be able to hold down 2 jobs, a house, and a three year old! Well was I in for a not so pleasant surprise! The first week was so strenuous that I had to have an extension on the due date. I learned my lesson the first week to not wait until 2 days before the assignment is due to start! I cut back hours at my part time, resorted to grilled cheese sandwiches and the bags under my eyes can tell you how much sleep I got. I honestly did not see the point in all the self assessments, but now that I look back it all ties together and I'm glad that I was exposed to all those surveys. It did reinforce the good qualities that I have and made me reflect on my bad qualities like time management and procrastination. Question #2. To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not? The outcomes that I achieved are very relevant to my work at school. I learned so much with this class; Wiki's, Blogs, RSS aggregators, Animoto films, embedding, copyright laws, web conferences, APA style, E-Rate, STaR chart, Texas Long Range Plan, Web 2.0 tools and I'm sure I left off about 5 other NEW things that I learned. Week 2's assignments had me excited about my choice of graduate work. I can't wait to implement these things in class next year! I even gave my brother, whose also a teacher, some ideas for his classes and even one of my colleagues at my previous school mentioned how intense my assignments were. I'm glad I did this, you can't learn something new until you try it. We read about innovative teaching with technology but are always afraid to try the new things that we just continue to teach in the old fashioned way. This class has given me the boost of confidence that I need to take my career and teaching to the next level and not continue to deprive my students of technology. Question #3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? The only outcomes that I didn't achieve, besides sleep and cleaning my house, were the optional progress monitors. Every week I would be so into completing the ASSIGNMENT, that of course always had 10 million assignments in ONE! Just joking, every week the ASSIGNMENT contained many parts to it that required hours of intense work. Not something to be taking lightly! So really what prevented me was time, but that was mainly a personal flaw of mine. Question #4. Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments. If not what prevented or discouraged you? I was successful except for week one, which was the wake up call that I needed! Never again will I wait until the last 2 days to open the assignment which in week one had so many parts I thought I was going to cry. Never was giving up an option because I always finish what I start, but week one was tough. Really the whole course was! I really learned a lot about myself and about technology and as I reflect back on it I must say this was not in vain or busy work. I learned some very neat things. Question #5. What did you learn from this course...about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? I learned about myself that procrastination is my enemy and I need help for it. I've always been a procrastinator but I really need to change that about myself. I also learned in week one's inventory about personality is that I am a rationale person. When I asked my peers if this was true the all agreed so that made me feel good. As an administrator that is a very good quality to have. I am also considering taking the principal certifications. Before this course I always said I'd never be a principal, but now it doesn't seem like such a bad thing. Is it going to be hard? You bet! But I also learned that sticking to it really does pay off. I am very excited about the rest of the 16 months, I learned so much in this class that I re-energized my passion to teach. Technology wise I learned an abundance of new things! I really do have a new confidence about technology and learning new things. As far as leadership skills go, I realized I have a very important administrative quality and that is that I am a very rationale person. On the downside, I need to learn how to manage my time better! My attitude is a whole lot better now than it was week one. I am excited and proud of myself for completing course one!