CEDO565 Week 2

I've had some experience using the WINNS database prior to this class. When my summer reading team took 1st place in Wisconsin for minutes read, the local papers wanted to know if having all these students reading over the summer improved our WKCE reading scores. I have to admit, it takes a while to find my way around, the amount of data available on the database is unbelievable. After researching our district, I was pleased to find that we had the highest reading scores of districts in our area as well as our conference.

CEDO565 Week 1

I maintain several lead roles in my district. First, as the LMS, I provide leadership to staff and students on information literacy as well as reading strategies. Second, as the Technology Facilitator, I am responsible for writing the district's technology plan and tracking progress of staff and students on 21st century skills. I meet with the school board to report on our progress of our tech plan goals as well as recommend new technologies for our staff and students. Third, as the first teacher in my district to write a PDP, I have become the "go-to" person for guidance to our new teachers to assist them with writing their PDPs.

CEDO555 Posting #3

Culminating experience proposal finally done. It needs some fine-tuning, but the majority of it is complete. I'm still having problems developing a rubric...as usual. I'm also hoping that my timeframe works out. I think as the project begins, more details with flush out and I'll be able to get my proposal better adjusted. Don't have much time...back to school in a month!

CEDO555 Posting #2

My portfolio is finally finished. It was a very long process and I had to sit down for a few hours many different times to get all the information included. The most difficult part was finding the right artifacts to use. I wish I had named them better when I created them so that I would have had an easier time locating them. Note to self...fine-tune my documentation skills for my next portfolio!

CEdO555 Posting #1

How have I or my district used e-portfolios? This is the first time I have used an online portfolio. Now that I have become familiar with using Google Sites, I think that online portfolios are so much easier than the traditional paper portfolios. Google Sites provides an awesome environment for artifact organization, reflections and other resources I have accumulated during the program. An e-portfolio is also a great way to provide documentation for my PDP. I can definitely see how an e-portfolio could be used in the classroom with my students. Sadly, I am 99% sure that no one in my district uses e-portfolios. That will change with my classes next school year. I can't wait to introduce my staff to the benefits of online portfolios!

CEdO550 Week 6

My students are gaining 21st century skills by learning how to expand their creativity using web 2.0 tools, working collaboratively with students in other countries and excelling in project-based lessons. Currently, my school district does not offer any type of online learning, however, we are in the process of collaborating with 2 other area districts that are our size and may offer online courses through these districts. My concern with the Virtual Schools legislation in Wisconsin is cap of the number of students allowed to enroll in virtual schools, with no more than 5250 students enrolled in a school year. During this module, I was excited to learn the difference between synchronous and asynchronous facilitations. I'm glad to have received the experience in online facilitation and after practicing with my short class on internet safety, I feel much more confident in my abilities to facilitate an online class.

CEdO550 Week 5

In reflecting on my teaching experiences to date, I would say that the proportion of teacher centered vs. student centered lessons has been 50-50. This is my 3rd year teaching, and as a library media specialist, I try to incorporate many 21st century skills into my lessons, including group collaboration, which is a trait of student centered lessons. I was able to identify more than one authentic assessment when I was trained in PBL - project-based learning and authentic assessments go hand-in-hand. The rubric I created for my lesson clearly defined expectations and scoring so that my students would know exactly what was expected from them for the assignment and they would have the rubric to refer back to if they had questions on if they were going down the right path when completing the project. While working with this module, I had success while doing something new involving differentiation. I did incorporate differentiation in my lessons, but it's more on the fly; I do it automatically as the need arises and don't always take the time to document the differentiation strategies in my lesson plans. IN REGARD TO WEEK 5 WEB CONFERENCE - I like Shawn's comment during his presentation that "everyone's equal on cyberspace - everyone looks the same". That is true in so many ways. If a student is taking an online class, I think there's less prejudice because you don't make the judgement based on the typical "first impression" when seeing someone. I noticed this when my students were corresponding/collaborating on a project with New Zealand students. For 4 months, they only knew their New Zealand friends by what they wrote in their emails. But, when they sent photos and noticed that none of them had shoes on, my kids immediately assumed they were poor...which they weren't, they just didn't have their shoes on when the photo was taken!