From Persona Experience…

One of the ways that I found to display my teacher Persona online is to post videos of myself speaking to the students, videos of things that I find interesting and things I think they might find interesting, memes and bitmojis.

So far, I have tried finding relevant YouTube videos and posting them in various sections of my course. The music classes are by far the easiest because there is a lot of YouTube contents of videos of songs and things from the classical eras of music. I’m finding a little bit more difficult when it comes to career planning and social media. I’m hoping to be able to do some more research this weekend to find some things that the kids would enjoy watching and is relevant to the course.

I really think that the kids are responding well to me posting videos of myself speaking to them.  I posted a padlet recently asking kids what they thought of the videos that I had made. Most of the responses were very good! I did have one student who said he was indifferent, got to love honesty right?  But most of the students said that they would like me to post more videos. I even had a student who requested me to post a video of my dog LOL.

I’ve attached to this blog one of the videos that I posted to the music appreciation class. This is a video from one of my favorite YouTubers Rhett and Link. I thought that this video was not only fun but relevant as it displays to popular musicians as well.

 

Turning a PLN into PLC

Having a great PLN is critical to your success as an educator. There are many ways that you can turn your PLN into a PLC. One of the ways that you can do this is by actively engaging in conversations with your PLN. Rather than just passively reading things that other people post.

Using my Twitter account, I had a conversation with some of my colleagues from the PD that I went to call Great Expectations. They are a really amazing group of people and I really enjoyed my conversation with them. I posted the question to them “what are some things that you do in your classroom to engage students?”  I had a really great conversation with many of them and it turned into a really great learning session for all of us. While many of the things that they talked about only applied to in-classroom students, there were a couple of things such as asking students questions to get them engage that don’t necessarily pertain to the subject.

Creating learning communities and working together is the only way that we can improve ourselves as educators. While it’s great to do individual research, there is something to be said for the community and many minds coming together to collaborate on ideas. There are many things that I have learned that I would not have learned without consolidating my fellow educators. One of the things that I plan on doing in the future is posing more questions to learning communities and following more people more closely on social media.

Stakeholders point of view: Parents

I took the time to interview my good friend Brianna Kuchek (Permission to post name and answers obtained) about her daughter’s education and the process of online learning, its impact, & her interest in it. 

I was very interested in her answers when it came to her perspective as a stakeholder. She had many misconceptions before we became friends about what online learning is and what it entails. She had considered online learning as something for students who had no other choice. Knowing me, she now realizes that it’s a valid option for students who want to learn a specific subject.

Bri said that she would be interested in possibly choosing a class for her daughters to take when they’re in middle/high school. They go to a school that doesn’t have as many options when it comes to art or supplemental classes for her daughters to take.

I learned about Brianna’s misconceptions when it came to online learning and I think her’s are similar to what other people feel when it comes to online learning. Many people aren’t aware that these classes are classes that people can take if they just prefer online learning, need to make up a credit, or even if they just really like that subject.

I was surprised to learn that Brianna would be interested in having her girls take some online classes in the future. We actually had a nice conversation about when the girls could take a class and what type of classes they may decide to take in the future.

I’m very happy that I had this conversation with Brianna. I learned a lot about her and what she see’s online learning being and I also got to have a great conversation with her. 

Introduction

This is my first year teaching online and I honestly have mixed feelings. I enjoy the fact that I get to spend more time with my family and doing the things that I enjoy while making my own schedule. I also enjoy my new co-workers and the fact that they are easy to talk to and get along with.

However, I’m having a difficult time when it comes to communications with the students. Much of my teaching style involves making kids laugh, being silly and having a good time. I often, in an in-person setting, make a lot of Jokes which is really tough to do in an online setting. Tone can easily be misconstrued as being mean or degrading so you have to be very careful with what you say and how you word it. This has been a challenge for me as I said that my teaching style usually involves me making light or jokes in some situations.

One solution that I found to portray my certain sense of humor to the students is memes. I have been finding funny memes to post on my weekly announcements or almost any chance that I get. I hope that the kids are understanding my sense of humor and find it funny I personally smile every time I open up my class and see the announcements.