course reflection

This course was the second online course I have taken with Dr. Luongo and after the first one, I knew all about the benefits from being a part of the course. I always enjoyed being in the classroom and face to face with the class, but I feel I was still able to get the same amount, if not more, from the online experience. This class provided me with a lot of hands on work that I know I'll be able to utalize in the classroom for future use. All of the educational videos and websites from each module were also very helpful. Having resources like those are always great to refer to when creaing lesson plans or trying to come up with new ideas. One of the best part of the classes is that you can work at your own pace. Having a schedule that changes from day to day, it is sometimes tough to get to a class each week. Being able to work on your own time is a great option. The online chats that we did every few weeks definitely helped keep me on track because I was able to ask questions and read about other peoples ideas. Even after only 10 minutes of chatting, there were always new ideas that I thought about because of it. There is no doubt about it, I am a big fan of the online class and can see these types of classes growing rapidly, even at the undergraduate level. Looking back at the class as a whole, I thought it was a great experience that will help me become a better educator.

Lesson Plans

Most teachers I talk to about lesson plans, eventhough they don't enjoy the process of doing them, they understand the importance of why they should be done. Having a good lesson plan is a great way to promote confidence in teaching. I feel that if you know you planned the right way for the classroom, following through and teaching the lesson will be more effective. It is much easier to teach after thinking about the topics and planning them out, instead of just walking into the classroom and trying to wing it.

special education and social networking

Providing special needs students with another opportunity to express themselves, besides basic communication, is a wonderful idea. There are times when not only special needs students, but all students respond better dealing with technology. This idea that the women in the video came up with showed how the students really got into the activities. The assignments they were working on and creating revealed a lot of happy faces. Allowing students to use their creativity is one of the best ways to keep them engaged, and sometimes finding this activities is the hardest part. Using projects like the ones from this video is a great way to special education students on the right path to social networking.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

I'm stealing the idea from Smitty. Sharing the history of St. Patrick's Day is a great idea. What a great time of year and with so many good times going on, I think it's important to spread the word why we're having these good times.

web page

Getting started the day we met was great because of the fact that were able to bounce ideas back and forth off each other. I wouldn't have set mine up as something for my golf team to use, which now that I've decided to do, should work out great. After mentioning it my team, they all seemed to enjoy the idea of being able to access the things I post without having to get in touch me. I think this project is going a little smoother because I enjoy the process of this more so than the webquest. Hopefully it works out in the end and I'll be able to utalize this in the years to come.

adventure education online

While in college I learned a lot about the benefits of implementing adventure education into school curriculums. I've been trying to get some of my PE classes involved with a few basic activities during class. They haven't taken to it well and I was thinking about giving them an assignment that will have them go onto www.pa.org and www.adventure-education.comand then write down their thoughts and opinions. Hopefully the students reading through these sites on their own, they will open up to taking part in the various activities in class.

Webquest

Before watching the videos, I was not too sure what to expect for this assignment. The videos were great because it talked you through all the important parts to cover and also provided the viewer with examples to utalize. This definitely helped me get my webquest going. Once I was able to go back and forth between the examples, putting together my webquest became much easier. I'm looking foward to finishing it up soon and seeing the final product. Next fall I'll teach drivers ed again and hopefully I can use it for my classes.

NJCCCS

While in college, I first learned about the CCCS. While there, all of my professors continualy mentioned the importance of them, especially when the topics of lesson plans came up.

I truly understood the importance of the NJCCCS when I had to re-write the K-5 Health and PE curriculum. It made the process much easier and more efficeint. Knowing what material to use and when is extremely important. The standards help with that and will allow teachers to keep the students on the right track.

Having standards will also provide teachers with a resource to keep them all on the same page. As long as teachers follow the standards, they will be able to rely on one another for help and ideas throughout the year.

1620 (TESTS) Throughout Education.

I never imagined taking 1,620 tests throughout the years of my education. That seems like a really big number and I can only really remember taking a few of them. Most of them I probubly never really cared about or had a big impact on my education. This video talks about different ways to test/assess students that don't follow the so called formal/ordinary tests most teachers assign. I remember the assessments that I didn't need to stress over to take part in, but still retain important information from it. I'm not saying that studying is a bad thing; I feel that if you let the students know they are going to be tested in a more hands on kind of way, they will get more out of the assessment. The hardest thing for a teacher is taking the time to be creative and come up with the different kinds of assessments to use. The difference afterwords will promote a great improvement in both the students experience and the teachers.

First day of class (computers in the curriculum)

Looking foward to another good class.

Tommy