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Reflections on Week One:

I have learned some great technological tools this week that I am very anxious to experiment with in my classroom. I am making a student blog site with kidblog.org as a part of our SIG. I am modifying literature circle assignments by putting them into the kidblog. The idea is that student literature circles will take turns, with our two classroom computers, posting their responses on the blog and commenting to one another. So, they will participate virtually on their assigned blogging day. I know my students will be excited about this, as it offers variety and will give the students something to look forward to during the week.

I have to admit that I was intitally frustrated with learning Twitter this week. I had a hard time adapting to the layout and lingo, such as "hashtag" and "retweet". But, now that I have familiar with the social network, I am excited to be able to use it as a professional social networking tool. I want to use twitter professionally and I think it set up in a way that allows that.

What I most excited about is blogging! I never imagined I would enjoy blogging. But, whenever we need to post to our blog I want to do it right away. I like that blogs are personal, both in content and design. I like that fellow students can comment on my work and I can also look at other student's work and comment. I like that I am tracking my development and resources along the way. It will be nice to later reference the old blog posts to see how my thinking has changed. 

The biggest thing I am taking away from week one of MAET is being a student again, rather than the teacher. I have forgotten what it's like to be the student, but I am glad I am being reminded of some feelings that my students go through. I have felt anxiety, doubt and vulnerability this week, which I dealt with by going to classmates and instructors. I am feeling like I am part of a safe learning environment. I am happy to be reminded of how important is it to foster a safe learning environment. I feel better prepared to support my students this fall now that I have again experienced being a student for the first time since I have played the "teacher" role.