Reflection

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? One of my biggest goals for this class was to work cooperatively with a group via only the internet. The group worked really well together and set up chats online, brain-storming Google docs, and many e-mails. This is the most I’ve worked with a group from all over the state, and I think it went really well. It was very easy to achieve the outcomes, especially since the group worked so well together and we divided up the tasks evenly. It almost seemed easier to meet with a group online that it does in person. As team leader, I am in charge of setting up team meetings and it’s very difficult with so many different schedules. With the online group, we set a time to meet online and stuck with it. It made me wonder why can five people all across the state meet up easier than five people in the same hallway? It seemed my online group was more determined and dedicated to completing the task at hand.

2. To the extent that you achived the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not? At this point in time, working collaboratively with groups online may not be relevant due to time constraints. The projects we created is very relevant. While working with the group we seamlessly and cohesively created lesson plans and a final project to go with those lessons that is differentiated and relevant to the content area. The way our online group collaborated and worked together and delegated tasks so well is something I will share with my team. This is a good example of how a team can work separately, but collectively to achieve one outcome. This goes for teachers as well as students.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? The only outcome I did not achieve is creating an assignment/project for my students to use in my classroom. The purpose of this collaborative teaching team was to work together to create a sample of something we can do in our own classroom. There was no way that we could all do something that was relevant to each of our many grades levels represented. Although I didn’t create anything concrete that I can use in my particular third grade classroom, I did take away some relevant information and ideas that can be applied to my grade level. 4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? I was able to be successful in completing all of the course assignments. Enough time as allocated for being able to be successful in completing all of the tasks. The amount of time we had to create the lessons and develop a project reflected the amount of time we have in the school setting. We have scope and sequences, so we can look at what’s to come and take weeks to plan lessons and project as we did in this course. Working will such a good team worked really well. As I mentioned before, we were very cohesive and punctual with all of our tasks. 5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? Throughout this course, I surprised myself a few times. I was not the team leader, but our team leader was so good and thorough that it made it easy to be under his direction. In the school setting, I consider myself a leader, especially since I have many tasks that require me to be one. In the online group setting, I don’t think I have the confidence like I do in the school setting. Technology seems to move a such a rapid pace that I’m finding all the time different things to incorporate; it’s almost intimidating how much is out there and how much there is to learn!