Final Blog Post

Write a final reflection for the course about what you learned and plan to apply to your professional practice AND a self-assessment about your blog performance throughout the course.  As part of your reflection, propose a grade for your blog - out of 75 points.

This course has by far been my favorite of all the courses in the MET program for a number of reasons. Not only was the organization of the course user-friendly, but I loved that each lesson built upon previous understanding to help build mastery of the content. It was fascinating to see how each assignment correlated with other assignments to create a wide range exposure trip of social media tools that exist. I think another aspect that I loved about this course was almost everything was new to me. I have taken courses in the past where content overlapped from other classes or contained material that I already felt fairly knowledgeable about. This was the first class that I have taken where I was challenged to learn just about everything for the first time. While there are so many highlights I will point out three that really stood out:

The creation of a PLN. What a powerful experience! My PLN was absolutely incredible throughout this course. In fact, in our last Google Hangouts meeting we discussed what a privilege it was to work with a solid group of like-minded individuals. There was a sense of trust that was developed over the course as we weren’t collaborating with peers at random. The PLN experience forced us to be intentional and to get to know one another. As a result, I took to heart the feedback given to me by Jennifer and Renee. They both challenged my thinking, opened my eyes to new ideas, and gave great encouragement. My positive experience has led me to think about creating PLNs within my own classroom. I teach honors English with another teacher and believe that one of the ways we can bridge our distinct classes would to have students create PLNs with students from my partner teacher’s class. This would be a challenge, but an awesome way to connect our students. 

Twitter Chats and Webinars. I never knew so many opportunities existed for online discussion. While the Twitter chats and Webinars were a challenge in terms of scheduling, I absolutely loved the experience. One Twitter chat in particular maintained such a friendly, welcoming, and engaging environment that I have returned to it the past few weeks. I have been toying with the idea of having my students participate in Twitter chats relating to texts that we have been reading in class. I also thought it would be very interesting to have my students participate in a Twitter chat in class. I could be the facilitator of the discussion and ask questions. This would encourage those students who are more quiet to participate and would prepare students for socratic seminars in class. 

Curation. This was my first exposure to the concept of curation and I thought it was amazing. I use Pinterest daily, but on a personal level. I didn’t fully understand the more meaningful idea behind the concept of curation. However, looking at it from an educational standpoint I see the great power that lies behind gathering distinct resources in one place. I plan on introducing this concept when we conduct research for our Issues Research paper (where students argue a side of a controversial issue using academic evidence). My students are strong when it comes to gathering credible evidence from the web and database sources, but lack skills in finding multimedia content. Students would benefit from curating videos, blogs, infographics, and other resources related to their topic. 

These highlights lead me to my justification for why I believe I deserve 75 out of the possible 75 points for my blog performance. Since each module presented a new learning opportunity for me, I believe the depth of my blog is rich and contains vibrant, organic thoughts. I sought to be intimate with the curriculum and really allow it to challenge by ideals. I wasn’t shy about sharing my opinions and maintained a consistent voice throughout my posts. Moreover, each time I posted content I sought to validate my stance with academic evidence and logical reasoning where appropriate. Lastly, part of the blogging experience is reading and commenting on the posts of others. My PLN posted material that was enjoyable to read. I looked forward to their thoughts and ideas on assignments because often their approach was different than mine. I appreciated this because it led to a lot of questioning and critical thinking. I believe I was an active member in this community which justifies my reasoning for why I should earn 75 out of 75 points.