One week ago I started working as an adjunct professor at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis. I’m teaching a graduate level class entitled “Applications of Technology as and Effective Tool in Teaching and Learning”. In essence, it’s a class which is based on ISTE’s NETS-T standards. As I understand it, the class is a requirement for all educational master’s degrees and is offered in both face to face and online formats. This is the first time I’ve taught the class so I’m unsure as to how the course has been run in the past, but I have to say that I’m really glad that I’m teaching again. For the last three years I’ve taught a few classes as development for teachers in my district. In fact, I teach somebody something every single day, but it’s different when you’re actually responsible for the class and the students therein. One of the things that I’ve missed in my current position is that interaction with students. So, here are some observations I have concerning my new class.
- I’ve missed having my own students.
- Face to face classes are fun to teach
- I really love what I do
- Practicing all this 21st Century Skills is hard work
For the last three years, I’ve been talking a lot more about teaching practices than I have been actually practicing them mainly because I haven’t really had or taken the opportunity to do so. Classes that I have taught up to this point have been a three to six hour stint in which teachers come, we talk, do a project and off they go. There’s always follow up and future conversations, but it’s not the same as having your own class and being responsible for the learning that goes on in that class.
So now that I’m teaching again, I’m trying to practice what I preach and expand the knowledge base and experience of my students in the area of technology and learning. So far, I feel as though it’s gone well. My class is small, but because of that, I feel as though I’ll be more effective and be able to really talk about the practice and art of teaching rather than focus on the tools. We’re blogging, using Delicious, and have created a website already after only one week.
Over the next 8 weeks I’ll be writing about this class and experience a lot. One of the class assignments is to do a weekly reflection blog entry so I’ll be participating by writing my own reflection.