Baker's ThoughtsBack to School Again

I just want to say how much I have enjoyed getting to know each of my classmates this summer.  Each one has added a different dimension to the class.  It was great seeing all of the personality differences and how they all worked together.  Every0ne worked and laughed together.

We may have had long nights of homework, times of stress, times of screaming or wanting to cry, but in the end we have joy and pride.  I am not sure how encouraging this sounds to others, but I want to tell you that in the end it has all been worth it.

Good luck to each of my classmates.  Stay in touch.

This has been an amazing four weeks.  There were times when my head was spinning and I didn’t know how one more bit of information would fit into it.

But, now as the Cyber Class comes to a close, I am filled with excitement and pride.

Thanks to Thomas for his patience.  Thomas has taught us how to design our blog, website, and PowerPoint.  In the beginning I felt lots of frustration and anxiety, but things have changed.  I plan to add to and keep my website updated and highly encourage my parents to refer to it often.  I want my students to use it for interactive games.  I love my PowerPoint and can’t wait to use it.

Thanks to David for teaching us even more tidbits about Excel.  Before this class began, I felt fairly proficient at using Excel.  I was wrong.  David taught me some great ways to do my checkbook and keep track of tax items.  He proved you can always learn something new.

Thanks to Catherine for sharing her knowledge of interpersonal relationship information with us.  I enjoyed taking the personality test.  Her part in the class was a nice break to our brains.

I highly recommend that teachers come participate in this class.

Stress…yes, I believe we all have stress at one time or another and at varying degrees.  Like the article said stress can be good or bad depending on the level and how we handle it.  My personal levels of stress depend on the situation.  I know that I bring stress on myself by not saying “no” enough and then by not delegating.  I am a people pleaser.  The article from Mind Tools was very interesting.  I also liked the one about Time Management which is related to why I often have stress.  The idea of keeping a diary was intriguing, if I had time!  I took the Burn-out Test and landed in the middle which shows to me how I can easily go either way.  Hope to have more time to check out different areas of the site.  I usually feel less stress in the summer.

I can’t remember a specific in-service that I enjoyed, but I know the characteristics of my favorite in-services.  I love ones that are interactive.  In-services in which you have to sit and listen are difficult for me.  Since I am such a multi-tasker, just sitting and listening seems impossible for me.  I begin daydreaming, doodling, and making lists.  Yes, my personality begins taking over!!

In-services that divide into small groups for discussion are good.  Allowing me to do an activity that is relevant to my teaching is wonderful.  If I am able to take something back to my class, I feel successful.

I do try to be positive and learn one thing every time I attend an in-service.

Well, today was the beginning of our second week.  We started the day with two minute introductions.  It was really intriguing to listen to the different stories of my classmates’  backgrounds.  I feel much closer to everyone.  We are building relationships, not just students sitting together  in a class.  This could be a good activity to do with our classes so that they feel united.

We also discussed time management.  We reflected on the various obstacles that we face daily to keep us focused and ideas to give us the ability to manage our time better.   Ideas were given on possible ways to handle people who interrupt us.

Excel work was also included today.  From our three months of checkbooks we moved on to a summary page and adding graphs.  It was fascinating on how much we can do in Excel.  I am sure we will learn on how to apply our new found Excel knowledge to our classrooms.  Maybe we can organize  info about tests, create class informational sheets, etc.  What does our Excel future hold for us?

Thomas introduced us to web related terminology.  The more we discuss terms and repeat them the clearer things become (at least for one day!) andon  how everything is related.  Practicing formatting a website wasn’t as bad as I thought.  Dreamscape appears to be fun to explore. 

Tomorrow will bring more learning experiences.

It was hard to pick my favorite website so I narrowed it down to three.  I enjoy www.usatoday.com so I can keep udpated on news, sports, etc.  For local news and Arkansas news I log on to www. todaysthv.com.  When I need down time I log on to www.websudoku.com.  I love playing the puzzles and depending on my mood and time I can adjust my level of play.

My poor listening habit is probably the ability to focus.  Being an ISFJ  personality. I am busy making lists whether on paper or in my mind!  If I am in a small group, I feel I do listen to the speaker, especially if it is an interactive conversation.   With a small group I can look at the speaker  or speakers in the eye.  I am listening so that I can comment. 

My listening skills are not great in a lecture situtation.  My mind tends to wander.  I am a visual learner and if a speaker uses visuals, I am more attentive.  Since I cannot control whether or not a speaker uses visuals, I need to apply the same skill that I use in small group situations which is to focus on the speaker by making eye contact, putting away distrations such as paper that I can doodle on, etc. 

Confucious says “I hear and I forget.  I see and I remember.  I do and I understand.”

For more Confucious quotes go to http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Confucius

Does a self-initiated learner see the reason for practicing?  Do they dig deeper?  Are they always learning?  Or do they just sit and wait for opportunities to come to them?

I believe this picture is the perfect example of those of us in this Cyber Class.  Our days are filled with hours of soaking up computer knowledge and then because of our excitement and desire to learn we spend our evenings practicing what we have learned.  To me a self-initiated learner has the inner desire to expand their knowledge and then share their enthusiasm with others.  Until recently I believed that everyone had a portion of desire to learn on their own.  It is a teacher’s and a parent’s responsibility to uncover that desire and bring it to the surface.  Then we must encourage our children to continue expanding their knowledge and showing them that their desire comes from within and that they must be self-motivated to continue learning.  Some of us have that motivation hidden deeper than others, but it is there waiting to be discovered.  As a teacher or a parent finding that initiation and unleashing it can be a real challenge at times.  We are not all motivated for the same reasons.  Some people are self-initiated learners about technology, others about birds, or music, etc.  But when our interest is sparked we become self-initiated learners to discover more knowledge about our interest.  We begin to have a great thirst to learn more and more.  We are like sponges trying to absorb all that we can.

Teaching is very difficult because students have to be involved in various kinds of classes but are not self-initiated learners for all of the courses, only for those that interest them.  So how as teachers and parents do we find what will make our children become self-initiated learners?  Or is that even possible?  I always believed it was possible and took it as a challenge to unleash that self-initiation in each one of my students.  I wanted to create a deep desire in each of them to read, read, read about their passions.  I loved those children that read every moment they had an opportunity.  This past year of teaching was tougher and I felt like I never did unleash some of my student’s self-initiation and therefore I was not successful.  These children just sat and waited to be told what to do.   Nothing seemed to interest them.   I was not able to instill in them the thrill, enthusiasm, or self-initiation for learning.

Today was the third day of Cyber Class.  It was amazing about how much information we acquired today.  It does make your head spin sometimes, but the time passes so fast and it is 2 p.m. before you know it.  I was excited to get home to try all of the skills that  I had learned today and to expand upon them.

First we began with a Windows XP overview.  It was fun to play with shortcutting programs to our desk top and to Quick Launch them to the taskbar.  Learning about “sticky keys”, mouse pointers, and too many things to recall makes me feel powerful!!  I hope I can remember some of  it!!! (Control Alt. down key was fun and I could see a use for it later.)  Thanks for reminding me to defrag.

Power Point was fun and learning about the Slide Master was cool.  I had fun playing with that tonight and can’t wait to do a design.  BUT, the most awesome thing today was Google.  I thought I knew how to use Google and felt pretty comfortable with it, but as we have said before there is always something knew to learn and no one knows it all. Today I learned that I had touched less than 1% of Google’s capabilities.   Googling was fascinating.   Coming home and exploring was entertaining.  I can’t wait for my twins (19 year olds) arrive home so I can show them all of the tricks that I have learned.  In fact I was at a meeting tonight with some friends and impressed them with my new found knowledge.

Looking forward to Day 4.  Oh, yeah, sorry about “breaking” the computer.  Hope it was a learning experience for you.

On the Road to School Again

Well, it was back to Cyber School for the second day.  Parts were too fast and confusing (handouts would help), and parts were good.  I loved learning about the personality part.  I pretty well knew in what area I fell, but I love reading and learning more about it.  Personalities are fascinating.  They are what makes the world go around and never be dull.

Thanks, David, for the shortcuts.  I made a list (personality???) of the shortcuts on a sticky note to place by my computer.

It is fun exploring and learning, but a few more notes to refer to would add to my comfort zone and lessen my stress.  My family was laughing at me and commenting that it was going to be a

lo-o-o-ong summer with me in this class.

Well, I am going to close so I can explore some more.  Looking forward to day three.