599 Last Post EVER!!!!

This feels good. To say that this is the last post for my Masters Degree is amazing. I can't believe how fast it all went by. Even more so I can't believe how much I learned in that short amount of time as well.

Doing the portfolio project was a pain in the ass to be perfectly honest. I had to redo and redo. My links were not working, things moved around as if they were operated by a ghost, and worst of all I forgot to save some things from time to time. With that said... it was a great experience!

I learned do much from this project. Not only is it an important piece to my academics, it is also an indicator of all that I learned. I never thought that I would have my own website. Who new I could embed files? Can anyone say Google Docs?

It has been a long journey to my Masters Degree. I can't wait to go on my next journey... the one that incorporates the knowledge that I gained on this one... the one that will increase the knowledge and interests of my students.

599 Blog 2

Well, I can see the light in the end of the tunnel. I had a great start in the beginning. All except for a recent talk with my instructor, Louie, that really kicked me when I was down. Come to find out... I put links in my portfolio that were not public. There was no way for anyone to access any of my info! No wonder I did not get any feedback from anyone.

This really put me behind. I spent a lot of time making up for things that I should have done right in the first place. Well, I guess that this is all part of the learning experience right???? I can see from reading other blogs that others were having some kind of difficulty as well. It does make me feel better to know that I am not alone.

With the time that I have left in this week I will spend it making all of my handouts and presentations. This too is proving to use more time than I originally set aside for. I can live with that because the end is near. A few more hours won't kill me. That is unless I upload everything wrong again. Well, I learned from that mistake so I hope everything is smooth sailing for the next week.

I am excited that the project is almost done and I am more excited to implement into the curriculum in a few weeks. Until then. . .

The Final Class: Post 1

Wow! It is hard to believe that I am here already. It has gone by fast and I have learned a lot. My memory seems to be on overload. I have a terribly feeling though that this class is going to be the beast of them all.

I have begun the timeline. At first, I was having a difficult time trying to think of things to come up with the 60 hours. I was beginning to think that my project was not complex enough and that I would have to start from the beginning. After a short time more of thinking about it I began to realize all of the "little things" that need to be taken care of. Now, it is becoming apparent to me that I may need more than 60 hours and that I am in over my head! This project was easy to underestimate. I look at it the same way that I look at grocery shopping.... Shopping could be a 45minute task unless you forget all of those little things such as spices, a head of lettuce, frosting and toilet paper. Then it seems as if I have to go back and just those few things take an extra 45 minutes because they are in opposite ends of the store. I am learning a great deal just by putting my tasks down on paper. I am more organized and I have a better idea of what I need because of the timeline... Perhaps I need to start making grocery lists! :)

Week Six

• How has your definition of leadership altered or been reinforced? Your definition of teacher leadership

• Has your opinion of your leadership potential changed?
• Do you agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within"? If so, what will you do to help?

I always knew that being a leader is hard work. I never exactly realized how much work it is however. Being a leader, especially and administer truly takes a specific state of mind. A leader's job is to always look at the system as a whole. Leaders are not responsible for one task but many. Theses tasks often cross the paths with many people may be very different. With such a complex environment comes a very complex job.

I believe that I am a good leader and that I do possess a lot of the skill required to be one. On the other hand I do not have an interest in doing so. I've been told by several instructors and administrators that administration would be a good Master's Degree for me. But as you can see I did not go that route. I believe that it is a very demanding job.

565 week 4

This week was insightful. The game specifically was eye opening. While playing the game in class I began to realize that we were no good to say the least. As we were playing our strategies made sense. But after each round we faced more and more rejection. None of our players were progressing and our strategies were not improving. This experience has opened my eyes to the difficult tasks that leaders have to face when it comes to making systems work. There are so many angels that need to be looked into and when you think that you have it all figured out, things still may not turn out as planned. I hope that we have a better insight next week.

565 Week Three

I know i did a week two blog but I must not have saved it??? Well, this week has been insightful. I see, so often, everyday, teachers, parents, and students, who only think about themselves. The problem with this mode of thinking is that we are all a school and the school runs as a system. It does not matter how perfect or new a part of the system is unless it is working with and communicating with the rest of the system.

This is becoming apparent this time of year especially because all I hear about is scheduling. This teacher wants this and that teacher wants that. Well, did any of these teachers sit back and think that their demands may not be what is best for the school as a whole... NO! The selfishness is mind boggling. If each teacher would think about the "system" meaning not only students but other teachers as well, things might just start to run more smoothly.

565 Week 2

This week again was interesting. I was different to take on the viewpoint of an administrator. It was also interesting to take a look at interview questions. I am always the type of person to get into an interview and "wing it." This is probably not the best technique however I can imagine that if I were to review good interview questions from an administrative point of view, I may be able to better answer questions for my own personal benefit.
Again, this week, I am beginning to gain a whole new appreciation for what it is that administrators need to do. They definitely need to be diverse and well rounded. I can also say that it is a position that I never, ever want. :)

565 Week One

Back to the books huh?? This week has been informative to say the least. I am really impressed with the required book so far and can say that I am learning a lot. The information is very relevant to me personally and gives me good insight of what could be in store for me if I were to take on a bigger role in my school and/or district.
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I also found it interesting that my classmates have strengths in different areas. Yes, that should be obvious however the resources this week have given great insight about our personal strengths. I think that the most important thing that I have learned this week is that being a leader is a lot harder than it appears to be. Heck, making it look easy seems to be a requirement for all great leaders. Little did I know.

555 Number 3

Well, I am slowly moving my way away from the portfolio to the culminating project. This is proving to be a very difficult task for me. Also, I can say that I am currently behind because of it. Instead of working on my culminating experience I have been putting all of my hard working efforts into the portfolio. For some reason I could not begin the end project until the portfolio was finished. To me it just seemed like the order that it should be done in.

I can say that the portfolio experience has allowed me to go back and reflect on all of the things that I have learned at the same time has required me to revisit my past assignments. While reviewing all of my hard work I can actually appreciate all that I have learned. This course of classes has gone by so quickly and it really caused me to lose sight of all that I was learning. Now, I am in a position where I can slow down (kinda) and just reflect.

555 Number 2

Well, this week has been exhausting. I have been playing "catch up" at work with my lesson plans and grading. I have also been playing "get ahead" with my Master's degree. Slowly, I have been uploading artifacts and writing rationales. This is proving to be a lot more time consuming than I could have imagined. With that said I must say that Google Docs has definitely made this job a lot easier. Google Docs has turned out to be a wonderful filing system that has housed all of my portfolio documents that I would need.

As of right now I cannot comfortably reflect on the work that I have accomplished. I am still feeling a bit overwhelmed and buried at this point. My mind is focused on an end result. Once I reach that point I will be able to begin a reflection at that point. Until then I will keep pluggin away at this keyboard! :))

555 First Post

Well, where do I begin... Should I start by telling you about the anxiety that I have about this class already or should I start by telling you how there is not time in my life right now for a portfolio. I am going to guess that I do not have to say anything because all of my co-students are feeling the same way. I don't have much to input into my blog this week because I am already behind. I have yet to begin my portfolio reviews while everyone else is finished. Enough said huh? Good Luck to all of you. I think we will need it!

Cedo 550 Final Post

As you have noticed I have not blogged a single day for this class before today. This is due to the fact that it has been the most demanding out of all of my Master's courses thus far. First of all, the work load has been tremendous. I  am no stranger to large amounts of work, graduating from Alverno and all, but it has come at a bad time. With that said I must interject that the work has been very informative and beneficial to my career. 

There has been two types of work dumped on me during this class. One type is the general class work consisting of research and paperwork. The other type is participation. I can easily say that I have learned more from the participation than I have learned from any other portion at all. 

Up until this point in the program I have not gotten much practice with facilitating and even participating for that manner. I realize now what a difficult job it is. It is a challenge to get participants to participate. It is also difficult to create questions that can start a conversation and then keep it going, all the while, trying to give each person a fair amount of wait time. Even though these were challenges I think that the practice has helped me tremendously. 

All in all, I have gained a useable amount of knowledge from this class. I look forward to gaining more facilitation time and to gaining more experience in the online teaching field. 

Week One 550

This week I had the opportunity to look at online learning from different perspectives. I was able to consider the pros and cons of virtual learning from the perspectives of a teacher, a student and a parent. I have to say that this assignment gave me an opportunity to look at things differently. I learned that virtual learning is a great way to educate students and that the pros outweigh the cons. With that said, virtual learning cannot take the place of a traditional classroom. Virtual learning is a great way to enhance traditional learning.

Week 4 Stats

This week we investigated a company called Hitwise. I have to say that it is very interesting. I think that the idea is a great concept from a production standpoint. It is great to know what the interests are of the consumers. And as a consumer it is great to have products readily available that you need/want. But will there ever be a line? How much information is too much to know about somebody? Everything is already monitored through GPS, credit cards, the Internet among many others. It would be an easy task to learn everything there is to know about me with just this information. I think that this might be getting close to a level of uncomfort. But with new advances comes a new risk and many more challenges.

Stats Week 3

Well, this week has been interesting. Our group decided to do our survey project on the health care bill. We thought that it would be interesting to gain some insight on what people were thinking since it is such a hot topic on the news. What I thought what was most interesting was that the participants were very opinionated about the bill however most of them admitted to knowing very little about the bill itself. How is it that people can be opinionated about something that they know very little about?

All in all the survey project was interesting. I was surprised to find out how easy Survey Monkey was to use and it was useful as well. I am not sure that creating the survey was that fun but reading the results was.