Legislation Reflection

I was surprised reading some of the information in the WI Act 222 where it discussed virtual schools and online charter school funding.  I didn't know many things about virtual teaching and wonder why there is a 5,250 pupil limit to online learning in WI.  Although I am personally excited to be able to teach online in the future, I was hoping that my wife could do the same.  However, the 30 hours of professional development towards teaching online will prevent her from doing so at this point.

It was a wake-up call when we learned just how expensive it is to start an online charter school, but I still think it is worth it because that is the future of education, at least in part.  :)  I am still skeptical about online teaching of a performance class or an art form that asks students to produce an emotional connection to the artistry.

Student Focus

I think one of my biggest weaknesses is creating a lesson plan with a rubric that incorporate differentiation. I know that I teach it everyday and I modify my lessons as best as possible, but I don't ever document it in my lesson plans or plan out how I'm going to make changes.  This is something I know is needed and probably the best thing to do when teaching, but even more important when teaching online.

This was a great week but it was also very busy.  These assignments were great and very valuable but at a time when I have concerts and the online presentation caused me to fall behind.  I feel better now that I am caught up but it was a pretty overwhelming feeling.  Glad it's over.

Reflection

It was a great week learning about how each group of people have benefits or challenges to an online learning environment.  It was pretty simple to relate to the challenges of educators, especially since I am going through similar challenges myself.  I discovered that I recently went through the stage of isolation.  This is where the student goes into isolation and attempts to leave their responsibilities of the course.  I am hoping that I have now left my feeling of isolation and am working hard to recover.

Learning about what students and parents might go through is important.  If teachers could better understand their students and how the parents were doing with our own courses, the relationship and learning environment for the student would be better.

Socialization

I have chosen to present on socialization for our final presentation.  This is a topic that I apparently need some more information on to help students interact in a future online environment.  I am excited about this topic but also have been working very hard to break it down to a more manageable discussion topic.

The idea that students will be taking more online courses is easy to fathem.  However, the concern is weather those online courses will make face-to-face social development more of a challenge for our future young people.  We can all think of students who face challenges when it comes to social behaviors.  The question that is concerning is what happens if those students face similar challenges in an online environment where there are no biases.  Will students flourish in this setting and will students who ordinarily do not speak out in class feel compelled to interact more?

These are issues that I plan to discuss and refine for my presentation.  Do you have ideas that I have not covered or want to help drive a discussion?  If there is something I should cover that you have thought about, please let me know!