Week 8
This summer has flown by! I don't think I am ready for this summer or this class to be over.
I have learned more about myself in social networking than I ever thought I would. I realized one very important thing: I was not using social networking to its full potential. With sites like Edweb.net and LinkedIn Groups, I could spend my time communicating with other educators rather than surfing Facebook to see what former friends are doing today.
I plan on continuing taking webinars when I can. Unfortunately, most of the live ones occur during the day so I may not be able to actively participate in them. Fortunately, Edweb.net has all of the prior ones recorded and saved. I have already gone through the archive to view ones that I feel will be beneficial in my classroom.
Although my district is super strict about students using social media (especially the elementary students in which I teach), I hope to adopt a classroom Twitter account to enhance the student learning. I will not be able to post anything that gives my location or student names, but I can make that information vague enough to still open the account. It is beneficial to have the students interacting with others. I am also going to get involved with Mystery Skype. I have already talked to my tech adviser and she is on board for my plans. They've already gotten me a web cam and the year hasn't even started yet.
I'm excited to try to use different social media in my classroom, but know I am going to have to battle the forces that be in order to make it happen. Strict policies are not a teacher's friend. I am going to have to make my case and make it strong. Luckily, I have a lot of ammo from my learning within this course to use and make my point clear and persuasive.
As far as my grade for my blogs are concerned, I would assess myself at a 73 out of 75 points. Although I did absolutely everything required of my in this blog and reviewing the blogs of my peer, I am not perfect and should not receive a perfect score. There are places in my blogs that I could have given more of an effort or written more. I want to give myself something to strive for in my next class.
