It's the final countdown..♪

It's here... the final week of ICCT2 is upon us!  This month has been tough but it was so worth it! I am so excited to go back to school with all the new ammo I have after this course!  I think that most people in this course would say the same.  There are so many new tools and strategies that I want to use in my French program and throughout August I will be organizing and planning how I am going to do that. That being said, the one last thing to do is to reflect on the process to help me move forward in my learning.

Describe one significant idea or issue that has arisen for you, as you were engaging in the topics during Learning Experiences #3 and #4.

LE 3 & 4 have been interesting because they have really encouraged action.  The planning for staff development and training has been realistic and helpful in thinking about what my role will be in the coming years in my school. There are often AQ courses where the activities are not realistic or even really relevant to some teachers.  For me, being a French teacher, I found that all of the E-tivities were easily applicable to my job and they made me really plan real plans for the coming year.
One significant issue that arose for me was thinking about how to be a leader in technology when you are not the person with the most experience or knowledge on the subject? What I have realized is that as one of the qualities of a good leader is to know your limits and your strengths and weaknesses, I have other qualities and experiences that will help me to be a leader within the school such as the organization skills and being proactive, and the technical stuff can still be led by other leaders within the community.

Elaborate on how specific resources, ideas or experiences in these Learning Experiences have contributed to your learning. e.g. reading material, course activities etc.

I have done Webquests in the past, but they were very basic and were written step by step on a Google Doc.  Making a webquest using an actual webquest maker was really great for me because I now know how to go about making mine better in the coming years.  I realized that I really dislike Zunal, but I would definitely use www.webquest.org.

Another specific activity that contributed to my learning in the last two modules was having to create a parent night presentation.  I have never had to present to parents before and so I really had to think about my communication with parents because it is different than communicating and presenting for colleagues.  It made me consider my communication with parents in general and how I could improve it in the coming year.  I teach so many students and so I have only spoken to parents as needed.  I think technology and the idea of keeping a blog is a great approach to parent communication,  If I create a blog where I will write updates of what students are doing in class in each grade, and sharing that blog with parents would be a good way to open that line of communication.

Share how your participation in the discussion forums have contributed to your learning and connect this to your understanding of the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession.

As I stated in my last reflection, I think that my participation in discussions forums and also the collaboration with a peer in LE3 was a way of displaying my commitment to professional learning and being a leader within a learning community. Although it is an expectation in AQs, not everyone monitors their own posts and responds to questions as they come up and people often just put comments on other people's posts such as "I like your post" or "nice chart" whereas I try to make thoughtful responses that are specific, and I ask for clarification from others as needed.  That helps me to show leadership and commitment to my own professional learning. 

Discuss any outstanding questions and the steps you may take to further explore your interests as part of your learning in the course.

^{I plan to continue my learning in this subject area over the coming years.  I will do this by first, being more involved in the management or technology and training at my school.  I will hopefully be able to start a tech committee this year and I will also be  using more technology in my French program.  The first being that I will trial XpressLab with my grade 8s, the next being that I will have a blog for each grade level I teach to help students and parents stay on top of what's going on and what is due. The next step is that when I go back from my maternity leave in the 2018-2019 school year, I will take ICCT part 3. I don't think I will take an intensive as it would be a bit  much with two kids, but I will take it throughout the school year.} 

Final comments...
One final note about this course is that although I have said on many occasions that it was very difficult for me, it was absolutely worth it!  I think it was just the schedule I had for myself this month wasn't conducive to an accelerated AQ. I'm sure all the other teachers were in the same boat because once summer hits, we tend to book ourselves up. I am so happy we all made it through and that I got so much out of this course even though it went by in a blur of activity.  Thanks to Joe for being a great instructor!