Hi! I am transitioning into a new career. After working for a Fortune 500 company for almost 15 years then being a stay-at-home mom for almost 10, I am now working on transitioning into a career in education.
My intentions
I have been a face-to-face classroom teacher but see a huge potential for transformation in education with online teaching. I want to learn the best practices thus far and eventually move toward teaching online.
Important issues
I have taken a good number of online classes. Most have been taught using fairly traditional teaching practices but nothing too transformational. I'm not sure what the transformation looks like but I have to believe that this mode of teaching offers huge unexplored potential in teaching and learning.
My contributions and community building
I will be an active participant in this community. Having said that, I recognize that it will require me to overcome the fear of criticism in front of a large and somewhat anonymous audience. I recently read Brené Brown's Daring Greatly and recommend it. Her story encourages me to dare greatly and participate in this community in spite of the risk of embarrassment and criticism. I am also working on reframing criticism and celebrating mistakes.
Aloha Debbie! Thank you for sharing this book resource. I have put it on my "to read" list. I'm hoping this MOOC experience will be a good one for you as well as the other participants. We hope the comments will be framed as questions to probe deeper rather than "criticisms". We will be wearing a colored hat to comment to postings (http://blogs.leeward.hawaii.edu/teachonline/week-0-activities/) Thank you for having the courage to be vulnerable as you share what you know and learn.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significance of the colored hat please?
DeleteHi Anne! Check out the bottom of Week 0, http://blogs.leeward.hawaii.edu/teachonline/week-0-activities/
DeleteThank you for donning a yellow hat, Leanne!
ReplyDeleteHi Debbie,
ReplyDeleteI like your use of headings, sharing an interesting resource, and adding a catchy image. It was very effective in getting my attention!
I have an eye for detail, so I look for you to expand on your thoughts on reframing criticism. I am surprised at times when I give what I think is helpful feedback, and it is received as criticism. This probably happens when I've overestimated the level of trust or credibility I've built up with the other person.
Best regards
Hi Noreen! Thank you for your perspective on feedback. Navigating online (without the benefits of nonverbal cues) can be challenging!
DeleteLooks like an interesting book - more info about it at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588356-daring-greatly
ReplyDeleteI agree that online teaching is still in its infancy, and we (as teachers and students) are still figuring it out. Some great classroom teachers are not good online teachers (yet). Some people who are not very good at the face-to-face classroom can be wonderful online instructors.
It seems to me that it has to do with making the human connections, but I don't know whether video or voice or real-time chat or something else is the best way to do that.