Reflection 1.2

As I finished my last day of school yesterday, summer is finally here! I get to stay home with my three wonderful kids and also reflect and improve my teaching practice as I think toward the fall. I am excited to take this Blended Learning Certification course and think it will definitely benefit my teaching practice. After taking the self assessment earlier in the week, I found it to be no surprise that I am a good candidate for online learning. It is actually my favorite way to participate in professional development and academic learning. I have taken many online courses over the years and also teach online courses in the field of education. I always find it surprising that an online class with an active discussion component can be just as personal and interactive (if not more) than a "traditional" classroom environment.

So... why have I chosen to take this course? 

Although I also love teaching middle school in the "traditional" setting, my most important reason for taking this course is that I want to bring the interactive, engaging, and self pacing aspects of online learning that I believe are so powerful, to my "face to face" students. 

What specific skills, strategies, or tools am I hoping to learn?

In this course, I am hoping to learn the best practices in designing an online/blended component to a traditional course at the secondary level. I currently use Schoology and want to use this learning managements system as I build my courses for my math and science students. I want to also connect this with the Common Core Standards we are implementing this year, finding a balance between skill development and higher level processing/application. I also want to find ways to motivate and engage my students in a way that allows them to interact with content at their own pace. I think the blended learning model will offer these opportunities to my students. I am hoping to spend time developing the best ways to manage an online component to the traditional classroom setting. Finally, I want to fully explore all the options that Schoology has to offer as LMS so I can maximize its use in my classroom.

The result of my online learning assessment is below: