Unfortunately enough, I actually had to miss this class because of a little virus that I woke up with Friday morning at about 8 am. I will say, on every Friday the 13th that I have lived through, nothing too boldly unlucky has happened to me, but after this past one, I can say that isn't true. A fever of 100.9 that prevented me to going to the only double session of my technology class wasn't exactly what I thought that day had in store for me, but I was proven wrong. This is therefore my compilation of what I believed I missed out on, and also what my thoughts would have been had I been able to attend. Please feel free to correct me and/or comment on other important ideas that I missed as well! :)
It sounds like the first activity that I missed was a great discussion session with some media center workers/librarians. This sounded like it would have actually been very cool, and extremely helpful. I find myself intimidated by libraries on a daily basis, and now technology also, so I would imagine hearing some experts on both speak to us would have been really great.
I was also informed by my fellow colleagues that some group work was done in this beginning session also, and from the sounds of it, this was an intimidating task, at best, to many. I would have been included in that list of people who get the chills when they think about group work. It is so hard. And it's strange because my first thought would be that group work lessens the work for everyone else because we are splitting it up...but that only happens in a perfect world. I find myself generally pretty frustrated with group projects and such, if anything, they give you an extra place to be on top of your busy schedule because you have to meet up with your group. But what I have found so far from our SECMAC group work in class is that the discussions really are enriching, even though at first everyone might have 19 million different ideas to bring to the table. In my experience so far in this program, the small group discussions are what have made me really realize the true key points of some of these readings. It really is valuable for my experience to learn how to sit down and hear people's opinions, and put my own in as well (which usually requires lots of confidence and pushing myself). So, I can say again that I regret not being able to make it to this class for more experience listening and sharing with my colleagues.
Finally, I missed out on the podcasts. And I apparently also missed out on some great humor from Kristin during the demonstration on how to construct a podcast. However, thanks to the help of some REALLY patient fellow students in this program, I was able to upload my own. And that was pretty funny, I will have to admit.
Abby! Sorry to hear that you were not feeling well enough to attend the double session. I am interested I knowing whether or not you generally expect bad things to happen on Fridays that fall on the 13th of the month? I believe great or not so great things can happen any day of the week. Yes, you missed a fun double day session. I was a little apprehensive about being in the same class ALL DAY. But the time literally flew by and I had a great time. I learned about how to incorporate technology into my classroom. For example, Google Docs. We incorporated the use of Google Docs to help aide in keeping everyone aware of the progress the group was making because some could not hear the discussion that was going on because of the seating arrangement. Prior to that day, the thought of working on the group assignment that day was intimidating. However, once we got together with our teams and assigned librarian/math teacher it was not bad at all. It was a RELIEF to say the least to share that effort with a team and not go at it alone.
ReplyDeleteHi Lakeza! Haha first of all, no I don't necessarily expect bad things to happen on every Friday the 13th. I'm actually really not superstitious at all, I just sort of made a joke about it though, because the day that I happened to get sick and miss class (when it was a double session) was on Friday the 13th. Also, my boyfriend was visiting that weekend too from Arizona, so I felt even more unlucky coming down with a fever on the day he was arriving! It was a bummer for sure.
DeleteI'm really glad to hear it was such a good class though! Well, glad and sad at the same time because I wish I could have made it. The Google docs seemed to be really helpful as well. I feel like all everyone ever talks about is Google docs and how amazing they are--I really need to get into them more. So far, in a couple of group projects for our other classes, my group members and I have used them and they have been super convenient. I am getting better at using them too with every group project. Definitely a tool/resource that I could see myself using as a teacher, or encouraging my students to use as well, especially with group projects. And especially if I end up teaching older high school students which I would really like.
I also really liked what you said about the team assignment. Team assignments, at least in my past education, have always seemed intimidating and also stressful going into them. However, so far in this program it seems like all we do is teamwork and group projects and honestly I am loving them and learning so much. It just really enhances the quality of my work to be able to sit with other students and hear everyone's ideas. A lot of of these concepts we are learning are just so amazing and complex that is absolutely necessary to bounce ideas back and forth to tackle these assignments.