This has been a fairly busy week from finishing up with my week
of observations at Asheville Middle School and taking on my first graduate
level class that was not part of NC teach and that program. I think
when I first encountered the level of intelligence and work it takes to do
a graduate level course I felt overwhelmed and this accompanied my headache
that I had at the end of each reading assignment. I read everything
on my own. I tried reading on the computer but I am one who gets sick
when I read in a car, so reading on the computer has about the same effect.
I eventually broke down and made hard copies for the sake of avoiding my
headaches. I actually like the process of having paper and being able
to highlight itas I go.
By the time I made it to my notes I felt a little more confident
about the material I was studying. I feel I do better with the hands-on
part of the computer than the understanding of terminology and technical
aspects. I guess this comes from my background of working as a data
entry person forseven years in the field of medicine and insurance. When
I went to writemy notes from the highlighted information that I had stressed
as importantearlier. I felt good that a lot of this actually made sense.
Fromtheir I was able to envision how I could use this plethera of information
in my classroom.
I visited one school this week where we talked about what do
youdo in a situation where there is no internet in the classroom. I
feltdelighted that I had an answer to this because of my new discovery of
downloadingpages in composer which would enable my students to see internet
pages ifthere is no internet access. I then pondered about creating
a web bookstudy guide. What if I could create pages with links on what
I feltwas the most important aspects of a unit, so that any point my students
couldgo to a computer and see this information. I then took this a
step further and thought well what if my students created their own web book
which could give each person the responsibility for one page of its construction
and itwould be individualized for that student but at the same time could
meet someobjective goals that I have set on my own. I feel it is with
these thoughtsthat I begin looking for my theme for the week. What
will my unit planbe about and can this web creation whether it be by me,
my students or bothbe a central part of this unit. It feels freeing
because I just camefrom an environment that their was little time to incorporate
new and innovativeideas because of the rigidness of testing. I want
to break through thisnotion that I have to be so direct in order to be an
effective teacher. I felt it was nice to read the 58 page article though
extremely long becausenow I have a better sense about where my educational
ideas are coming fromand where I want to go with them.
I am glad that I did not give up like I felt like doing at the
beginning of the week but am moving forward. I am hopeful that thenext
twenty four hours a theme will appear. It is amazing how much anxiety
people put into school meaning me. I am glad to have made it though
my first week of intense course work and am looking forward to the next one.
I at least am not holding my head and maybe gradually I can get to the point
where I can actually read off the computer screen without feeling sickly.