I have to admit that the idea of being a blogger is a bit intimidating. Although I have taught both online and BlendED classes, I still consider myself as "computer skills deficient". I have 4 schools enrolled in the Intro to Psych Class, Only one student enrolled in Greenwood, so I will need to modify some of the assignments since she will not have anyone to work with on group projects. The other three schools have 7-9 students. We had a few problems getting everyone online and able to post their URLs to the site. Jamie was very prompt with her assistance and I think everyone will be up to speed on Monday. I am currently playing with posting quizzes and using the gradebook. I keep telling myself that learning new skills will help keep my aging brain in shape.

Classes begin

The HS classes are beginning and I have been talking to the instructors, mostly about "technical " issue, but some about other things. There is always some technical stuff to work through, especially at the beginning but that will be a constant. I am concerned a little or maybe a lot with the size of the classes. I know Kristen has 33 or so kids in the class, and 20+ from one school. I did not anticipate that at all and I think it will be a challenge to manage in this modality. I know the HS kids well enough to know some may try and take advantage of this (after all I had a student who consistently say off camera last year and evn in a smaller class I some days just did not notice. I think in this case we will need help from the school-hopefully the school is up to it.

I know students are getting work done, as I get the forum updates as I am listed an instructor in the courses, fortunately I don't have to read there assignments.

I will be interested to learn how the activities work this year, some I tried last year and some are newer so it will be interesting to see what works.

Quick thank you to the teachers who are doing the work, and please stay in touch with me as I want ot be as much help and support as possible.

The HS school classes began last week, and to be honest I am not really sure how things are going other than to say that I have provided some help to the instructors and hopefully that is helping people. Of course the classes have only just begun so I will give it time.

I have been doing some scholarly reading and review with a particular emphasis on examining a couple of ideas.

1) I built the courses to some extent based on the idea that we need to provide three forms of instructions for students, forms that build on one another, those being instructivism, constructivism, and connectivism. This notion is not my own, but it seemed to make sense - the idea that we must provide some information or instruct people, the idea that we must build on peoples own experience with various subjects so they can and will construct an understanding of the world, and finally connectivism which sets the stage for student to find ways to connect to ideas by engaging in active experiences.

2) I tried to do this in all of the learning plans, building form one piece to the next.

I have also been reading about the Theory of Transactional Distance, essentially the idea that says the more we close the "distance gaps" between instructor and student, and between student and student, the more learning that will take place.

I know that when I first taught the HS classes I felt a great deal of distance, and discomfort, and I sense the first group of students also did so I worked to find ways to bridge that gap. After spending time reading about this theory, and reading about the importance of creating relationships and community in classroom I then began to see the connection between the ideas.

Now of course the task is to see, if I have translated the theory into something that can be practically applied by using a set of strategies in the teaching process.

Time will tell.