As I continue to learn about the Characteristics of Effective Instruction, I find that they make more and more sense to me. I feel as though I “get” the concepts behind each and with continued study, I’ll get better and better at articulating the concepts, as well as incorporating them into my teaching.
I’m feeling good about my learning when it comes to the Web 2.0 tools as well! Again, I know that I’ll never “get there” when it comes to mastery of the tools, as new ones are being developed much more quickly than I can learn the ones I know about! But… I know that is the nature of the game, and I'm adjusting to it! When I think about what I’m doing now, that I wasn’t doing just 6 months ago, I feel pretty good! I'm fairly comfortable with Adobe Connect Pro, as we have been using it as our primary mode of Iowa Core PD this year. I also have created and currently use four separate Wikis this year- one for my Nashua-Plainfield group, one for my Grinnell Middle School Group, one for my Archdiocese Brain-Based Learning group, and one for our SPIN leadership teams. While it has been a struggle to get my participants to use the Wikis as much as I would like (without imposing rigid expectations on them), they are coming around, and are using them more and more. Within all of the Wikis, I have used the discussion forum to extend our face to face discussions.
I have also created two blogs and am using them regularly. One of these is for maintaining a connection between myself and my BBL participants during the winter months when we are not meeting face to face. It is a way to keep them thinking about the content of the class, even when we’re not together for long periods of time. I also created a blog that is linked to my personal website. I use this to make regular posts about whatever I’m hearing, reading, or learning about the brain--- for whoever might be interested.
Perhaps my greatest ‘aha’ (which really shouldn’t have been an aha) has been that whatever I blog about, sticks with me! Rather than just reading an article about a particular research study or finding, I find that when I write about it- and try to articulate it in writing to anyone who might be reading my blog, I develop such a clearer understanding of the concept myself! While this is certainly not a new concept- the idea that when you engage in WRITTEN REFLECTION on a topic, it is a form of elaborative rehearsal, and actually deepens the learning- it’s been a good reminder for me about the power of writing! This makes blogging (regardless of whether anyone is actually reading my posts) a great tool for deepening my own learning!
