From+the+heart

From the heart  When I first started this class, I was really nervous about doing an online class. I have never done one before, and did not know what to expect. There have been times along the way that I have felt frustrated, wanted to give up, and asked myself ‘why does this matter?’ The more I got into the Wiki, the more I began to realize how fun some of the things were. For example, Shelfari has become one of my favorite new sites, along with Google Reader! Before I started this class, I did not like the internet. I knew how to check my mail, and read on the site that I wanted to, but other than that, I did not care to learn anything else. My perspective on that has changed, and now I feel that there are so many things that I can do, or teach my students, that will help them with their education. I was being selfish thinking that my students will learn how to work a computer on their own, but in reality, I need to be the best all around teacher for my students, so they will be able to go on to higher education.

I am glad I did not take the easy way out for this class, and I am glad I learned as much as I did. I still think my Wiki does not look the best it can, but I will fix that. I think if I turned in one that did not need fixing, I would never go back to it, and redo things, and make it better. For now, and all I have learned, it is where I want it to be. But, in the next year I will make it something that can really change the future of my classroom, and the kids I am teaching. I am most proud of getting over most of the obstacles that were frustrating me along the way. There were times I wanted to quit, but I did not. I forgot what it meant to be frustrated in a classroom—most of mine are easy to me—but this grounded me, and made me feel like some of the students in my class will feel, and now I can look back at this class, and know how they are feeling, and some ways I can help them out.

If I were to do this class again, I would have read through everything. I would have taken a day to read through each assignment, and realize the purpose of them. At first, I did not understand how to put things in my Unit of Instruction, and if I knew what we would be doing along the way, I may have set up my unit differently, instead of changing it all the time. While I realize that units will change all the time, I felt overwhelmed with trying to figure out where my new assignment fell in my unit. If I had to do it again, I would have been more prepared from week to week on what we were going to do! 