My Summer Vacation

I spent the majority of my summer taking two online courses for my masters program.  The courses I took were EDL 7305:  Data Analysis and School Improvement and 7100:  Leadership Theory and Practice.  Both classes were good and I learned a lot.  I was very excited in the beginning of the semester to learn that the classes would take place entirely online.  I equated this to mean I would be able to work by the pool for some of the assignments.  Yay summer!  I did take my book to the pool once to read the assigned chapters, but that only happened once.

What I soon realized was that the summer semester is shorter than normal semesters, so 12-14 weeks of learning was shoved into 6.  Whoa!  That also meant that modules of learning that were separated into 8 sections had to be condensed to make sure everything was covered in the six weeks worth of classes.  And by condensed, I do not mean that things were eliminated.  Instead, two weeks worth of assignments sometimes were due in the course of one. I had one face-to-face session in each class where I met two really good professors that I would have enjoyed learning more from in a regular class setting.  Instead, I got to learn from narrated power points (which I was really thankful for), and a once a week online chat that was beneficial.  During those online chat sessions, while trying to get good information from the professor, I also got a lot of interesting noises provided by my classmates.  People were talking over each other, some were louder than others whether from being on the phone as a call-in student or from microphones turned up really loud.  I promise at one time I could have sworn I heard a toilet flush, too.  This could have been partly due to the online site that was used to conduct these meetings because I had another class where we participated in something similar, but it was better with buttons you could click that allowed you to indicate a raised hand for a question or a little bird indicated that you were away from the computer momentarily.  I believe that site was called Moodle.  I'll have to check it out to be sure.

Here's what I've learned from this experience and these courses:

1.  Summer vacation does not exist when taking grad courses.

2.  Data is a lot more interesting that I expected, and I am actually excited about collecting and analyzing (now that I know how) it in the upcoming school year.

3.  If I have good ideas and want them to be implemented at my school, I'd better become a principal and make those ideas a reality.

4.  Being a teacher leader is a huge responsibility with job descriptions in all kinds of areas.

5.  I learn much better in face-to-face classes than I do in online ones.

So here I am at the end of my summer classes.  I made it!  And, I still have 3 more weeks of summer (the only really good thing that came out of the Cobb County school year calendar being changed again). Yay summer! Plus, I am at the half-way point in attaining my master's degree in instructional technology.  Yay me!

You'll hear from me again during the fall semester as I embark on two more classes.  Until then, you'll find me by the pool.