Finally!

Well, at the risk of speaking too soon, I think I'm finally finished with my master's program! I completed the revisions and corrections to my online portfolio today. It's not perfect but I've tinkered with it in Frontpage as much as my patience will tolerate. Frontpage just insists on changing my page format. : ( I think it will be fine, though. Wow! What am I going to do with all my extra time now that I'm done? LOL! : )

The "Exit Experience"

Wow! I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the info Bill gave us about the exit experience. I know it was not his intention to stress us out but... It seems like so much information to manage and talk about, (and sound intelligent in the process)! I feel my group has a good plan, though. Joe had a great idea about how to organize the material and our thoughts. I hope I can hold up my end of the conversation!
Another result of Bill's discussion with us on the exit experience was that I realized just how much I have learned in the ITS program. We covered a lot of material in the past year and a half! My group spent some time reviewing our reflections from our portfolios last night as part of organizing the information. It was good to look back and rediscover all that we have done.

Thoughts on Posting to the Internet

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."
Omar Khayyam

The subject of MySpace and other sites like it and the controversy surrounding the content that some people post on them came up in conversation again. I thought of this rubaiyat and decided it was a good reminder that we and our students need to be mindful of the material we post to the Internet. It seems unfortunate that employers are hiring or not based on potential employees' past indiscretions. I could understand if the "inappropriate" posts were current but to delve into what someone did years ago as a high school or college student seems a bit harsh. I'm sure all of us did or said things in our youth that we regret or that were less than admirable. I, for one, would not like to have some things I did brought to everyone's attention. This makes it especially important for us as teachers to caution our students and to impress upon them to be responsible users of blogs, wikis, and other web technologies.

Advocacy Wikisite, It's a Wrap!

Carlene and I finished our antibullying podcast and staff development on Thursday. Kevin wrote a terrific letter to post on the advocacy site. We are almost done...just a few cosmetic changes are left. I am proud of our antibullying site. Check it out! http://schoolbully.pbwiki.com
I have learned much about bullying by doing the assignments for the advocacy site. This problem has really touched me. I was more affected than I thought I would be when I filmed my daughters reciting part of the poem on bullying for our PSA. I am definitely going to be more aware of the interactions of my students and more sensitive to any possible bullying going on. As adults working with children we need to take responsibility for ending harassment of students and by students. "Take a stand. Lend a hand. Stop bullying NOW."

The End is in Sight

I am both elated and sad that we are so close to being finished. I sincerely hope that we all can keep in touch. We have built a learning community together, one that inspires, encourages, supports, and applauds accomplishments. I have learned so much from everyone. I still don't consider myself a techno guru but I am proud of all that I have learned. I look forward to sharing my knowledge with other teachers and using my new skills in my classroom with my students.

Wikis and Editing

I was editing the telecommunications page on the itsipedia site today and started thinking, "What if the changes I make in sentence structure, etc. cause the original meaning of the piece to change?" That idea made me really nervous, especially since my partner and I are the last to edit this page. It's the whole trust issue I brought up in one of my first postings. Only now I'm a little overwhelmed because I'm one of the people other people are "trusting" to post valid information. What an awesome responsibility! Having said that, and acknowledging my concerns, I am seriously considering using a wiki in my biology class next year as a sort of ongoing class glossary of terms. I once read that a first year biology class has as many new vocabulary terms as the first year of a foreign language. An ongoing, revisable glossary makes sense. Of course the control freak in me will probably password protect it so that only my students can access it! Ha! I guess I haven't come as far as I thought! I don't want to "undermine the effectiveness of the tool" by retaining too much control as Will Richardson says in his book. I'm going to have to try hard to trust that my students will see this as a viable and useful activity and will use it responsibly. There's that whole trust issue again....

Antibullying Advocacy PSA

I'm really becoming emotionally invested in this antibullying advocacy. I think our group is creating a powerful PSA. At first, I think one reason we chose bullying as our topic was that we felt we could find a lot of information on the topic. However, as we work on this advocacy project more and more I, for one, am becoming more involved in the topic and it's importance. Tonight I recorded my daughters each saying two lines from a poem about bullying we are using in our video. I am amazed at how much I was affected by their performances. I let each of them choose the lines they wanted to say. They each have experienced being bullied so they were able to relate to the topic and I think that made the video more true to life.
What a powerful tool digital video could be in the classroom! If students are allowed to choose a topic that is meaningful to them some incredible videos could be produced. The work required to produce the video would engage the student and even if they weren't heavily interested in the topic in the beginning, they would soon have a feeling of ownership which would motivate them to do a good job.