A Short Journey Worth The Climb
EDUC 5P42 - Self Assessment
INTRODUCTION
Coming into this course I wasn't too sure what to expect. Innovative curriculum and assessment? Well, I thought I knew what the term innovative meant, I believed that I was well acquainted with the curriculum, and assessment was something that I was familiar with throughout my entire educational career. I found out quickly that I had much to learn about all three educational terms and a lot of it had to do with the picture I posted above - Know, Do, and Be. I have heard about the words that are under each heading but to be honest, I never really heard about Know, Do, and Be. By categorizing the educational terms that I have been familiar with under each heading sheds some light on 'innovative, curriculum, and assessment'. For example, I could see 'co-creator of the new story of education' under 'Be' placed with innovative, then 'design thinking and integrative thinking' under 'Do' coincide with curriculum, and finally 'AfL, AaL, AoL' under 'Know' placed with assessment. To anyone else that thinking might not make sense to them but to me, it has helped by trying to pair certain key educational terms like 'Know, Do, and Be' with the title of our course, 'Innovative Curriculum and Assessment'. I also want to make sense of my Blog's title, 'A Short Journey Worth The Climb'. I feel that EDUC 5P42 has been a short journey (a.k.a. class) - with it being condensed into the Spring Semester. It has definitely been a climb as well simply because I wasn't familiar with the technological methods we used in class, which I will go into further and it was tough trying to balance this class with my final EDUC 5Q97 course, Junior ABQ course, and then my hectic landscaping business schedule! But as the title says, the short journey was very much worth the climb. For the rest of this self assessment I would like to venture into the different components that I experienced throughout this course, starting with Twitter.
TWITTER
 |
| http://zpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/twitter.png | | |
Ah, the good ol' Twitter, a Social Media platform that I swore to never join, for whatever reason I had (I really don't know why I objected it). However, when news first broke about having to create a Twitter account for EDUC 5P42, I wasn't extremely happy about it simply because I'm not really into the whole Social Media scene. Yes, I do have Facebook but no, I do not check it every day. When I feel that I am under pressure in terms of school work or my business, I like to steer clear of any Social Media platform simply because I fall back into my hold habits of procrastination and then the rest of my day is more or less ruined! However, being that it was for educational purposes and a requirement for the class, I created my account: https://twitter.com/jfstew17. James Stewart on Twitter, I never would have thought that the day would come. But I must move on and talk about my experience using Twitter! I had roughly about 20 Tweets re; education over a period of a month and one week. That's really not too bad considering that I have never posted that much on Facebook over a course of one month and a bit. I have to admit that at first I was really hesitant because I thought that it wouldn't be useful; however, I quickly found out that I could use it to my benefit, something I believe you (Susan) wanted us to experience with using Twitter. I found that when I signed on Twitter to post my Educational Tweets that I kept on spending a little more time each visit with looking at what my classmates would post and I ended up visiting each article, either reading them or tossing them to the side if they didn't interest me. Overall, I have to say that Twitter was beneficial throughout my short journey of EDUC 5P42. I learned a lot of new things that will help me in terms of education. Will I use Twitter this summer? No, probably not just because of my schedule. But, will I keep Twitter and revisit it when I am again placed in an educational setting? Most definitely. Again, Susan you did the unthinkable - you put me on Twitter and thank you for that, introducing me to a new educational platform.
GOOGLE DOCS
 |
| http://0.jsucdn.com/instructionaltech/files/2012/02/M-GoogleDocs.jpg?b1c5f4 |
Oh yes, finally something I am familiar with, Google. I was very excited to start this component of the course because the idea sounded really neat and very collaborative. Now, my excitement stopped when I tried to figure out how to maneuver around Google Docs. It had Google in the name so I thought it would be easy but at first it really wasn't. However, as most things never do come easy in the beginning, they usually work themselves out after a few minutes of calming down, breathing, and then thinking about how to solve it. Thankfully, throughout this process I had a team (shout outs to Marisa, Tien, and Brett) to smooth everything out. Once everything was figured out, I actually had a lot of fun working on the Google Docs with my group. Being able to sit individually on computers and seeing what my group members were saying while having the opportunity to comment was amazing. The positive teamwork that went into the Google Docs was very inspiring and I could see how as an educator, I would encourage my students to use it. Furthermore, the discussions we had on Google Docs were very beneficial and they were as follows:
Past, Present, and Future: Connectivity to Learn
Brett (MC4C), James, Marisa and Tien
The Power of Feedback
Brett (MC 4C), James, Marisa and Tien
 |
| http://sourcepool.net/assets/misc/content-visuals/network.jpg |
Both of these Google Docs were very beneficial to me mostly because I was able to see what my group members were thinking about for the same topic that I was writing on. Another interesting part about this activity was that each of my group members are involved with education but in different ways so it was really amazing to see where they were coming from and what train of thought they were using. I got a lot of insight out of the Google Docs component from this course and I am very glad that I have them saved on my Google account because I am sure I will use these as examples in the future!
CLASS PRESENTATION
 |
| http://www.luigiparisi.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ipad-popplet-lite-large.jpg | |
For this portion of my self-assessment I would like to talk about the presentation component of our course. Although every component of this course was very beneficial I honestly have to say that the presentations that my classmates gave were amazing and the most helpful! I learned about so many different social media platforms that I definitely know I will use when I get my own classroom. There were so many excellent presentations and apps that I downloaded on my iPad! Here are some of the apps that I know I will definitely use:
My group (shout outs to Travis and Eddy) decided to present on Popplet, which you can see a picture of its logo above. Below you can see the Popplet that I created for our presentation. We all decided on this educational platform because it is pure and simple. Something that anyone can maneuver around and an app that can be used to export to your teacher if you are a student. Again, the presentation component of this course was amazing and I feel that my group did a very good job with outlining a useful education app!
 |
| My Popplet |
21ST CENTURY INTEGRATED CURRICULUM
For this portion of my self-assessment I would like to quickly speak towards the 21st Century Integrated Curriculum component of our EDUC 5P42 course. I had amazing group members (another shout out to Travis, Eddy, and Jordan) and all of us came up with a really neat curriculum. We decided to choose Biology, Physical Education, and Business as our three subject areas to integrate into a curriculum! My favourite part about this entire component was the Rich Performance Task where we created a business called, Good 4 You. I really felt that as a group we included all three subjects and integrated them into one creative Rich Performance Task. Again, the 21st Century Integrated Curriculum component was a very helpful and beneficial task to me as an educator because I was able to work on and experience what goes into a curriculum - vertical and horizontal scans, etc. It was also very good to use Know, Do, and Be throughout our curriculum. Very helpful!
BLOGGER
 |
| http://inforrm.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/blogger.png |
The last but not least component of EDUC 5P42 was the Blogging. Again, another great social media platform that was used throughout this course. I have to admit though that I had some great frustration with this component at the beginning of the course. I had never created a blog before and even though I have dealt with Google and G-mail for quite some time now, I was very confused by this whole 'Blogger' thing. I didn't know how to properly publish my blog and had to resort to the calming down, breathing, and taking a minute to look around technique. Luckily I found the 'publish' button and the rest was history - my blog was created: Masters of Education Unleashed - http://jfstew17.blogspot.ca/. Once I had everything figured out I really enjoyed blogging and seeing what my group members (again, another shout out to Marisa, Tien, and Brett) had to say about 21st Century Learning! It's neat to go back and see the progression of my blogs as I believe my writing has been more or less the same but the display of my blogs have changed, and have been a bit better each time. Although I am happy with my blogs I know that I can improve them by leaps and bounds. Seeing some of my group members blogs really inspires me to become a better blogger! Again, whenever I am doing something I always try and relate it back to my passion, which is teaching. I just need a job first! However, I feel that when I have my own classroom I am definitely going to have my students create their own blogs and complete homework assignments through their blogs. I am very fortunate that one of the components of this course was to create a blog because I really don't think I would have looked into creating one if I wasn't enrolled into EDUC 5P42. Similar to Twitter, I don't believe that I will be using Blogger throughout the summer but I know for a fact that I will re-visit this educational tool when I get back into the educational scene and become a teacher!
CONCLUSION
 |
| http://janieandrich.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/21stcl1.png |
I can't believe that EDUC 5P42 has come to an end. This short lived journey has definitely been worth the climb and I am glad that I enrolled in this course. The great thing about this self-assessment is actually just talking about every component I experienced throughout this course and realizing how much I really did learn. Not only did I learn a whole lot about education, I also have a lot of new helpful educational apps and platforms that I will definitely use when I get my own classroom. I really look forward to what the future holds for education and what the new story will be. 21st Century Learning is such a big part of where education is and where it will be heading towards. I am lucky that I will be a part of the educational shift and might be a part of the next wave of teaching styles! All I can do is make sure that I use the tools I gained from this course to benefit the children that I teach and come across in my education career!
Thank you Susan for a wonderful experience and journey that I never would have ventured into if it wasn't for this course!
Until next blog,
James
