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Goldilocks objectives - Not too vague, not too specific, but just right.

Discussing learning objectives/outcomes is not a "sexy" topic within education. In fact, there are very few topics I can think of that teachers would like to talk about less during professional development. Nonetheless, developing clear and measurable objectives is essential to effective teaching practices. The central question every teacher must ask themselves while designing a lesson is, "what do I want my students to know when they leave my classroom?" - THIS is the objective. While this may appear straightforward, I feel that some teachers fall into the Goldilocks trap - that is to say, their objectives are either too vague or too specific, and not "just right".  Too vague implies the objectives cover too much material and students are not sure what to take away. For example, in psychology class, "students will be able to (SWBAT) discuss how the human brain functions." I would ask this teacher, "do you mean how the brain functions ev...
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Designing and Organizing an Online Course

  Moodle is a fantastic learning platform to help run and organize an online course. Instructors are provided with an array of tools and resources to support student learning and teacher instruction. The primary assignment for this week was to embed many of these resources into our moodle course, such as wiki, a discussion forum, quizzes, a checklist, and folders etc. The essential question we need to ask ourselves is not how many resources are available - there is an abundance - but what is the best resource available for what I am trying to accomplish? For example, when should I use a wiki vs. forum? When should I use a URL vs. page? When should I use a quiz vs. survey? Veteran teachers, like myself, have access to a pool of activities, lessons and projects, etc. One of our challenges is picking the "right" activity, lesson, or project to meet specific learning outcomes/objectives. This challenge is magnified when teaching online courses because we have l...
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Feeling Uncomfortable is a Necessary Evil

I work with many veterans teachers who cringe at the sight of new technology and media, especially when they feel “forced” to adopt these tools in their classrooms. To be honest, I completely understand their fear and appreciation – it takes time to learn these tools (e.g. podcast, audacity, mastery manager), they are difficult to master, and most importantly, change can be scary. But technology is not our adversary – technology (used correctly) can support our instruction and help students learn the material in non-traditional ways. I would argue, as teachers, we should not wait for administration of ed policy to tell us what to do or how to use technology; rather, we should be in the forefront of change and seek out different multimedia tools. The assignments for this week – creating a google site, podcast, screencast, avatar, etc. – got me/us out of our comfort zones. This is vital to being, or becoming, an effective teacher because our students face similar challenge...
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Entering the Lion's Den

The importance of face-to-face interactions in a classroom between student-and-student and teacher-and-student cannot be overstated. Creating a positive learning environment often depends on the use of nonverbal expressions – simple eye-contact, tapping on a student’s desk to signal inappropriate behavior, use of hand gestures to emphasize a point, etc. As a high school teacher and university adjunct instructor, I rely on these communicative tools to see/understand how my students are feeling, who is comprehending the material and who is lost, who is having a bad day and who is elated, and even to assess my own instructional effectiveness. Accordingly, shifting from a physical classroom setting to an online setting will have its challenges. The readings from this week, however, reduced some of my anxieties about teaching in this format. More specifically, I understand my role as an online instructor. I like the premise of thinking of an online instructor as a “tour guide”, guidin...
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