While listening to this presentation, one thing sticks out to me as the most important fact - Attitude is everything. I am 6 hours away from achieving something that I never thought I would even try to accomplish. I will receive my Masters degree in December. Ten years ago when I signed on to teach in Mesquite ISD I never planned on working on this degree but as the time drew near and the thought of getting a new job changed my attitude and as I have progressed through my classes my attitude has changed toward my teaching. Even though I teach Physical Education I have engaged my students in many different learning strategies and learning processes and I have become a better teacher as a result. I had to change my attitude or I would be looking for a new job as we speak and I would have to leave a great school behind.
Looking at the 7 1/2 habits it is very easy for me to pick out the most challenging, the easiest, and the most important habits for me. I will struggle with using technology to my advantage mainly due to my subject area and the lack of technology available to my department. Hopefully I will find something in this class that will aid this weakness. I also hope to find more confidence in my abilities to teach these ideas. I will never struggle in finding time to play and shouldn't we all know and be able to see where the end is to all of this? I am definitely up to a challenge and one of my personal traits that drives my wife crazy is my persistence. I view creating my toolbox and teaching others as the most important of the habits. A good teacher has many different ways to teach their students and as technology grows, this toolbox must keep pace.
I also love the fact that my students and more importantly to me, my own kids, see me going to school and studying, showing them that being a lifelong learner is important no matter how old we become.
It is very hard to find a way to connect technology to some of the classes that are taught in school. Perhaps you could find a way to have your students track their physical fitness goals using some technology. I am not sure how they could do that while at school considering the size of a computer lab and the size of your classes . . . but if you could introduce the idea, that would be a life-long skill. (It also gives those of us who are not as good at being physically active a little bit of a new perspective). I enjoyed reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteThere is bound to be some"thing" in this class that you can use in yours! I look forward to seeing what you can come up with in the next few weeks....won't your students be surprised!?
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