What about the class itself?

I must admit that I had some reservations coming into this class...the thought of reflecting for everyone to view and then recording my voice for everyone to view was not my cup of tea. Also, I felt that I would not learn as much by not being able to meet on a weekly basis. (Rather, just posting to each other's blog as a form of discussion and interaction) YET. I will say that I am very glad I took this class...it was different, and that's probably why it was hard to adjust to at first. I learned what blogging and podcasting were really all about, and I do feel that I was able to interact with others...not by seeing them by but truly knowing them for their words. In a class discussion, I think before speaking, but when you have to write something down and it's somewhat permanent, a lot more thought goes into the writing. Also, it was nice to see what people had to say in response to one of my blogs. I felt that I got some valuable suggestions to use in my teaching practices and some nice feedback about some of my perspectives in teaching.

Some of the resources were irrelevant to me, so that as a high school math teacher I think I would benefit from a bit more material that strongly pertained to my teaching. I do like hearing the perspective of younger kids though, because I think it helps to understand how students have developed even though they are at the high school level currently. Perhaps some math classroom anecdotes even at a much younger level would help to inspire critical literacy teaching practices?

I'm encouraged to get a blog site going for my class, because I think they would be engaged and really have to listen to each other as they sit and read what others have said in a particular discussion. I feel that this piece should be a part of the next go round of this course so that teachers are putting the blog site into practice.

Thanks, Vivian, for the enlightening experience...