Takeaways

This Five Star course has been a wonderful introduction to blended and online learning.  Having had prior experience with online courses through my Masters program, I wasn't a stranger to this approach.  As a teacher in a traditional brick and mortar structure, having MY students move to a more online based approach to traditional public education is scary.  It disrupts everything that I've spent years to build.  However, this class has helped to to focus on what my priorities should truly be as an educator.  I should always be working to grow and develop as a teacher and consistently put what's in the best interests of my students first. 

For some students, an online classroom is going to be the best place to learn.  There are things in the brick and mortar structure that interfere with their educational opportunities.  Those things can be dampened, but never fully eliminated.  Other students thrive in the traditional classroom and setting them in front of a computer at home wouldn't work well, or serve their interests.  Most students in upcoming years are going to start to see more of a blended curriculum, taking the best of both approaches and combining them into a new curriculum model. 

This is something that I as a teacher need to be ready for.  Often teachers will moan and groan about changes in education and are slow to adapt to changes.  Change is difficult to accept, but teachers need to be on the cutting edge of these changes so the best interests of their students is constantly at the fore of their professional thinking.  At the point a teacher gets comfortable in their teaching is, when I believe, they begin to lose effectiveness. 

This course has given me several applicable items I will be able to take and share with my colleagues to make every teacher in my building more ready than what they currently are for this new shift in education.  We have to delve into this shift prepared and practiced, because the students we teach look to us as the model of effectiveness within a profession.  If we aren't prepared to do our jobs effectively, what kind of a message does that send to the students?  We should be the ultimate models of professionalism for them to see.