Parting is such sweet sorrow...

I have to admit, as happy and elated as I am that I am putting the finishing touches on my culminating experience project and getting ready to put on my cap and gown, I'm also a bit sad. I have been putting off this blog post for days now because---it's the last one!

My growth...

I just spent about 30 minutes reviewing all my old posts. It was funny because I can remember sitting down in front of my computer writing them and I kept laughing at how many times I wrote "overwhelmed". And at the time I really was overwhelmed with all this new information. Now having completed this program I no longer feel overwhelmed with things like social bookmarking, basic computer components, digital storytelling, e-portfolios, etc. I feel like I can navigate my computer, the internet, virtual classrooms, wikis, LMS, and blogs with ease. Sure there are times I am a bit frazzled with a new tool, app, or website but now have some excellent skills to troubleshoot.

I am very grateful for this program as it has helped me become much more digital literate. In my first post I blogged:

Tonight was the first class in my online Master's program and I am really excited. I would consider my technology skills very erratic. I would consider my technology skill strong and well developed in some areas and extremely uninformed and clueless in others. My school district just purchased SmartBoards for every classroom and have really revamped their expectations of technology integration in the classroom. Even though this seems like a daunting task and difficult for an art teacher to fulfill, I couldn't be more excited. I just wrote my PDP on integrating technology into my classroom to help promote visual and digital literacy. So when I found this program I was thrilled!

I really hope to learn a variety of new skills and strategies for teaching in my classroom that isn't focused only on the arts. I have a great background in Adobe's Creative Suite and other editing programs but, lack the education in internet applications. I can't wait to learn and use the information we learn in class in my own classroom. Maybe I will actually be able to "teach" some technology skills to my students! :)

I can honestly say that my technology skills have improved 10 fold, I can use my smartboard a number of different ways with a number of different applications, I have met many of my PDP objectives, and I in fact have "taught" a great deal of technology skills to my students.

I am also so much more confident in my use of technology in my personal and professional life.

My Accomplishments

I don't even know where to start. I have done so many wonderful things in this program as well as things because of this program. Here's my laundry list:

• able to maintain a blog (I now have a personal and professional blog)
• created an e-portfolio
• can use google docs, google calendar, other google apps proficiently
• went paperless in my classroom by creating a LMS and electronic worksheets/rubrics through google docs
• created a google reader and knows what an RSS feed really is
• can hyperlink and embed (and I know the difference)
• knows the different types of computer platforms and can use them correctly
• can create a number of different presentations using digital storytelling concepts
• created student lead critiques using apps like voicethread
• uses social bookmarking
• BACKS-UP! :)
• learning about creative commons
• developing a more clear understanding of copyright laws
• internet safety for children
• learning how to "learn online"
• facilitating both synchronous and asynchronous discussions.

This list could go on and on but those are some of my top favorites!

Need More Info...

I don't really know what I would have liked to learn more about because, I probably don't even know it exists but I am a little bummed we didn't spend too much time learning about pod-casting. I don't think it is something that I would have too much trouble figuring out but would have been neat to just try.

Parent Teacher Conference and the moodle

Well I just wrapped up 2 LONG days fo P/T conferences. Our district has the conferences set up so that Monday we teach all day and then have conferences from 4pm to 8pm. Then we teach a half day on Tuesday (7:20 to 12:45) and beginning conferences at 1 and go until 8pm. I am WIPED!

On a brighter more energetic note, I have never felt more prepared about conferences that I had this year. Since I just had my students submit all their reflections electronically I was able to pull up all the info at conferences if their was a question about a grade. (I tend to get the "How do you get a C in art?" or "How can you give an F in art, he turned something in at least, right?")

Since the google docs reflections are all shared with me and a picture of the project is attached, I was able to "show" parents how a student earns a C, etc.

Moodle was also an excellent resource for me. I had many parents say they were excited to see the art project we were doing, have the directions, see examples and look at their child's art work after it has been finished (via google docs and presentation). In addition, I was so much more organized for conferences too. I only needed my laptop! No more projects, paper rubrics, direction sheets, class rosters, etc. I had everything I needed in my moodle or linked to my moodle.

For all the hard work and time I spent putting this moodle together so far, I reaped some major benefits over the last 2 days.

--Update on my project. I have created all three of my curricular units, posted them, created project sheets, direction guides, presentations and rubrics. Now I am focused on the quizzes. I need to figure out how to create them in a more timely manor. I have an appointment set up with my tech dept. for next week Tuesday. I am hoping to hear some good news about setting quizzes up as it has been taking me almost 2 hours to create one 15 question quiz. (The quiz is automatic scoring and immediate feedback too, so that may be why it is taking so long. I have to have responses for all the correct and incorrect answers.)

I hope that by next week at this time, I will be able to say I have complete the quizzes and now just need the students to take them!

Tweaking the Proposal

After meeting with louis this week I feel like my proposal is sooo much more manageable now. I had one very large culminating experience set up and was beginning to feel quite overwhelmed!

The new proposal is similar to the old one but much more focused now. I am going to be focusing on creating a moodle as my classroom "hub" and developing/implementing 6 curricular projects by Thanksgiving. I will be focusing more on how to use moodle as an instructional tool now. I will be learning the ins and out of moodle, developing slideshows, tutorials, google docs worksheets, rubrics and direction guides for my moodle.

This week I focused on setting up the moodle so it was easy to navigate, organized and consistent. Since I teach 3 different levels and art classes (Art fundamentals, 2d concepts, 3d concepts) I wanted to make sure they all looked the same so that as students move through the art program at FOx RIver, they will be familiar with the moodle set up.

I spent over 7 hours figuring out how I wanted to organize my moodle pages--probably too much time, but now I LOVE how it is set up. I piloted it with AF classes and they found it very easy to navigate! They like how I created a "topic" box for each project, posted a picture of the project and created links to project directions, daily learner goals, rubric, project examples. I am using google docs to create all my online worksheets so that if i need to change anything on the file, I don't have to re-upload a new word document--google does it right on the web! woohoo!

I learned sooo much more about moodle from "play" this week that my colleagues are asking me for moodle help! I am still in the dark about using the assignment and quiz options but feel so much more confident in my understand of the layout and "resources" options for moodle.

The Beginning of the End

So I began my moodle pages and had my students submit their first electronic rubric/evaluation. Overall, I think it has been a great success. We had some issues with our server at school, which caused some of my classes to not be able to access the moodle and their google docs but still it was all online the students just did it at home instead. I really like having them submit their work to me online and have already been thinking about how I can make it even more successful. For instance, I have decided for their next project that they will complete the self reflection, unit questions and rubric online through google docs as well as insert a picture of their project too. I will NEVER have to take work home again! Just kidding!!

The idea of the photo is two-fold. THe first is that I usually spend hours grading at school to make sure I am grading the right project. I do formative assessments throughout he project so having the photo inserted on the picture is just a great way to "jog" my memory. By the time I get to assessing their project I pretty much already know how they performed on the project. The other reason why I want them to insert a picture is so I can give them "mini" photo assignments like turn in a color picture and a black and white or create a comic strip (using toon-do, etc) with your image.