Oooo, The Water Is Cold!

Welcome... 

                 to the terrifying spectacle of a middle-aged woman, vulnerable and almost naked in her swimsuit of experience, trying to jump in a cold batch of new technology.  It all began with an assessment of her technology skills:

Technology Skills Boot Camp Assessment…Ew

                Rate your confidence level (the real categories):  

         Hunt and Peck, Ask Your Children, I Had To Do That Once- But It Was A Long Time Ago, No Problemo’ and OMG, Are You Kidding?  Wow.  I have no confidence in technology other than Word Documents other than I’m willing to keep at it until I “get it” no matter how far I have to go for help.

                I’m so happy to be taking this class because I just started a new teaching job at age 53, at a new level of education and I suddenly need a whole lot of technology to help me at my community college.  Also, my initial skills assessment needed one additional category, “Pitiful!”

                I need to establish a spreadsheet system for three classes for attendance and grades.  I inherited two awful syllabuses and I need to create my own and be able to post it on a class site.  I want a power point presentation for Henry James’ Daisy Miller, and some videos of me explaining/encouraging certain writing processes for my class web site. 

                My college uses Sakai for their online classes, and I need to find out if Google Docs can be used to build a class.  Google Docs seems to be a real favorite among educators and I’ve seen some of their sites, so I’m very interested.  

                I need to check my class/school e-mail on my new phone (which provides hours of entertainment….to my family as I try to use it correctly and efficiently.)

Ann’s work plan and goal list:

Get a blog established by 9/22/13, following my learning adventures.  Here I am!

Mod 2 – Supporting Student Content Learning, Communication and Critical Thinking

By 9/29/13 I will establish spreadsheets for my three classes to chart absences and grades and I will get my Northwest State Community College e-mail added to my phone and learn how to check it and respond.

Mod 3 – Supporting Student Creativity and Problem Solving

By 10/13/13 –I will create a PowerPoint presentation of Daisy Miller, and more importantly, learn how to coach my students (many non-traditional) so that they can create PowerPoint presentations about authors and literature for our class.  Also, I will submit my Final Project Proposal (possible Google or Sakai class site with online directions for next semester?)

Mod 4 –Supporting Student Production and eLearning

By 10/27/13 I will have been teaching from my inherited syllabuses long enough, writing down modifications, additional exercises, etc., so that I can create my own syllabuses for next semester with fun teaching graphics, text boxes and easier access.  The ones I have make me cross-eyed and are difficult to follow.

Mod 5 –Supporting Teacher Development and Student Futures.

By 11/22/13  Final Project/ My Teaching Site with some embedded videos of my salient points and possibly some interviews.