The readings that we were supposed to discuss in class last week were interesting. I was not really interested in distance learning until I was asked to write a high school English class for online/distance learning with another English teacher and our district's tech person... not sure of her official title (who by the way, is being forced back into the classroom next year because of budget cuts- big bummer for district although I am sure she will manage to keep us all afloat in our tech needs!).
I am excited to do this for many reasons. For one thing, the other teacher I will be writing with is an eighth grade teacher who is my age and we never get to see each other because our building is so large, so I am excited we get to work on something together. I also really like our techie-type....
I love the idea of becoming more valuable to the district (and any others...) by writing classes for online learning. No teachers at the high school are willing to do it and I think it will be fun to "teach" high school without actually having to change schools.
Lastly, I am excited to further work within my chosen field of study and have something real-world to connect all of my learning to. I love being able to directly use what I learn in my grad classes in my classroom- it makes learning so much more valuable and fun. I look forward to exploring the distance learning courses that are now being offered through the IST program here at the U- because at first I didn't see how I would be able to use them. I am excited for another new challenge- which this program never ceases to offer me!!