End of a Journey...The final post for my Instructional Technology Program

When I started this program back in September 2010, I didn't want to work on a masters program that would be done just for the sake of completing my masters.  I wanted a program that would enrich me and would make me feel as if I have learned many practical things I could use in my professional life as well as my life at home.  After looking back from this point in time to the very beginning, I feel that this program has gone far beyond I could have every wished.  As I sit here typing this final blog, I am amazed at the amount of useful information I gained these past two years.  I am so happy that I learned Google Docs and want to continue to use this for myself and my students in the years to come.  I am also very pleased that I was introduced to Diigo, the online social bookmarking website.  I use that daily to access sites I use often as well as share information that I encounter as I am surfing the web.  Before this program, I never made my own website.  I'm excited that I can help others make a site free on Google and can be a reference if people have questions about making their own site.  I have also used a lot that I have learned in my classroom.  My students love to use Animoto as a way to report on books they have read.  I have used Prezi with students as an alternate way of making a presentation.  I also enjoy using Eyejot to give messages to my class if I am not going to be at school for the day.  One thing I would like to use more with my students is Voice Thread.  This year I was unable to use this with my students because we lacked the hardware to make it happen.  This summer our district will be getting all new computers and equipment, so I should be able to have my students use Voice Thread for various projects.  One more thing I am really grateful for is learning about RSS feeds.  I have seen those around for many years, but never knew what they were.  Now I can have various feeds set up for my students and they can get information very easily.  Well, I know I can go on forever, but these were some of the "big rocks" that I learned the past couple years.  I am truly happy that my technology knowledge base has grown so much in such a short period of time.  Though this program was a lot of work, it was worth it.  It kept me very busy, but I will miss it.  I would like to say thank you to all of my peers I have worked with the past couple years and thank you to all of the professors that made this program possible.  This program has had a huge impact on my life and I will be ever grateful for the time I spent in it.

Cedo 599 Digitial Futures Week 2

I'm pretty excited about our final project for this cohort.  I have decided to use a site called Edmodo for my two Civics classes next school year.  Edmodo is a lot like Facebook.  It is basically a social network for students to use around school.  Instead of Friends, Edmodo has Connections.  I can connect to other teachers or with all of my students in both classes.  I can put posts on my wall that can be seen by my students.  I'm really looking forward to being able to put class information on Edmodo as well as assignments for the year.  If anyone has experience using this, please comment on my post. 

Week #6 of CeDO 565 - Leadership and Planning

I really can't believe that I am on the verge of my final class in this masters program!  This past class, Leadership and Planning, has showed me that leadership is much more than just the higher ups in a business and school.  Leadership can take place in many different levels of an organization.  Before taking this class, I always felt that leadership was not for me.  When someone asked me if I am a person who would want to be a leader, I would tell them I have no interest in being a principal or associate principal of my school.  However, this classed showed me that I do not have to have a higher up position to still be considered a leader.  In many aspects, this class has showed me that I am currently a leader amongst my colleagues.  I am a go to guy for technology and special education.  Many people know that I am taking this masters program, and they ask me for ideas that I have found throughout my time taking these courses.  Overall, I still feel that I would not want to be a principal, however, I do feel that my leadership qualities can still be utilized even as a teacher.  I get a long with people very well, and it is easy for me to spread my ideas with others.  As for the textbook's assertion about "improving education from within,"  I think this is very true.  I think the more people can convince others in their school to change or try different things, the better it is for the school and the more able the school will be able to keep up with the challenging times we face today.

Week #5 of CeDO565 - Leadership and Planning

As I finish my work for this week in CeDO565, I think the biggest thing I have taken out of this weeks class is that I am glad that I am a very flexible person.  For the most part, change isn't very hard for me.  I see it as a challenge that needs to be overcome and most of the time, it is for the better.  I currently have a lot of change going on in my life.  I will be moving out of my house I have lived in for 7 and a half years and moving into a new town and much larger house.  My wife has a new job she will be starting in a few weeks and even though it isn't me getting the new job, I know I a lot of what she will be experiencing will be a new experience for me as well.  I am also getting very close to finishing up this Master's program and I am working on my first casino party tonight that I have supplied all of the card dealers.  A lot of change, but I like it and look forward to it.  I think the biggest obstacle I have now and would like to work on in the future is helping other people with change.  I know it is hard for a lot of people, but a lot of time they just needs someone to help them through and know that there is someone who has got their back.  I feel I will be doing that a lot in the next few years at my school as more technology is being introduced as well as different work conditions are implemented in my school and district.  I am glad that this class has opened my eyes up to different ways of working with change, and I hope I can use some of what I learned to help others. 

Week #4 of CeDO565 Leadership and Planning

This week, we continued to investigate the effect of change on ourselves as well as the people we work with.  During Tuesday's class, we started a simulation game where our goal is to set up a school change plan and convince as many people as we can to go with the change and make it happen.  We are given "three years" to do this (which is actually 3 hours).  After the end of year one, our group did ok.  We got a few of the people of the game moved over to the 2nd stage of change, which is preparation for change.   However, for a years worth of work, this was very hard.  Our group felt that we should have moved people further than that in one year, but we had no such luck.  I am looking forward to what the next year does for us, but I am expecting many challenges as this game isn't very easy.  I guess it is supposed to mimic real life change!   In addition to this game, I just finished an individual assignment which I picked a time when I had to make a change.  I picked the way I am currently running my Civics class.  In the past I had the students use books and take notes from power points I made.  Now the students are using Moodle and looking for there own information and then coming to me with it. This is a huge change, but it is working great so far and I feel it is a huge benefit to the students as they are learning much more than they would from hearing me lecture on a daily basis and take notes.  I do still do quite a bit of talking, but it is when students have questions on what they have found or if I see that they are working on something that I want the whole class to be aware of and investigate.  I look forward to seeing the many more change based activities we will be working on for the remainder of this class as they are interesting and make me think!

Week #3 of Cedo565 Leadership and Planning

The big idea that I enjoyed learning about this week was the ability to change.  After reading the articles and watching the videos, I think that I am doing very well in this area of my life.  I don't love change, but I am very good at being flexible and moving on when I do need to change something in my life.  I currently have two huge changes happening in my life.  My wife and I are going to be moving to Appleton from Oshkosh so our son can be in the same school district as me.  We put our house up for sale 3 weeks ago and thought we would probably be waiting a few months before anyone would put in an offer.  To our surprise, we got an offer last week!  We are now looking through many homes and trying to figure out what would best fit us when we move to Appleton.  This is a HUGE change in my life, but I am hitting it head on and I am trying my best to find something that will best suit my family.  I feel that my wife and I are like Haw in the video because we were thrown something that we weren't expecting, but we are not hiding, but looking and trying to find our next piece of "cheese".  In addition to that, I am currently looking into helping a friend expand a casino party business in North Eastern Wisconsin.  He said that he would provide me with a trailer and equipment, but I would have to find a way to tow it and I would have to find casino game dealers who can help me run the parties.  I decided to take this on and find another huge piece of "cheese" in my life.  I also daily run into change at my job.  I tell people that every day I go to my school, I don't know how the day will end because so many factors come into play.  I need to be flexible to change or my job would drive me crazy!

Week #2 of Cedo565 Leadership and Planning

This week we looked at data from our school we teach at.  I actually enjoyed this a lot.  I wasn't sure if looking at data would intrigue me much, but it really opened my eyes to how my school has changed in recent years.  The school I teach at is Appleton West High School.  One huge change that has been happening to my school is a change of demographics.  As recently as 1995-96, West had a minority student population of 5%.  Most of these students were Hmong students who live in Appleton.  However, if you look at our demographics of current students, we now have 30% of our population who are minority students.  We have many more Hispanic and African American students who have moved here from other parts of the country.  Although are demographics have changed immensely, our performance on state tests scores aren't much different than they have been in the past.  They are lower, but most categories are 2 to 3 points lower than they were 10 years ago.  Act scores really haven't changed at all, still scoring, on average, around 23 points.  It really is amazing to see how diverse our school is now and I really enjoy the challenge of helping all different types of students and learning about their back grounds and ways that help them succeed in school.