Reflection+on+collaboration

Reflection: Attempting to do a lesson plan in a subject area that is foreign to me has proven to be quite a learning experience. Often times, the best way to grow as a person, teacher, and collegue is to take on a project that makes you think and strategize. Most importantly, the concept of collaboration was redefined as I worked on this lesson. As a teacher we need to entice our students to join in a collaborative process in which we learn and discover together. I think I was always looking to be the teacher, or more accurately, the instructor or lecturer. Teaching is not about letting someone know how much YOU know. It is getting them eager and excited to join you in the learning journey. I do not think I did a very good job of enticing my collaborating student to join me. I think I was expecting him to jump right in there so we could share ideas, thoughts and learning strategies. The only fact I knew about him was that he is an undergraduate music major. I assumed that I would not have to do too much prodding in order to get feedback. I guess I should have done more. Although I thought I did a pretty nice job of setting up a discussion section in my wiki, it did not evoke any response. What I have learned about my collaborator is that he is a creative individual that finds the coursework aspect of education as mundane and boring. He seems to be very talented in music, computers, and has a creative mind. Sometimes, though, you have to bite the bullet and get the job done no matter how tedious and time-consuming it is. It is amazing what can be learned by taking the time to unwrap a subject to find out what makes it tick. In the matter of video collaboration, Robert did a fine job of replicating the lesson plan. He has a knack for creating a visually interesting item. However, I received his final work in a format that was not acceptable and so I had to wait until he could send it in one I could work with. When I did receive his movie in a movie maker format, it was not broken into frames. It was sent as a handful of clips that could not be edited on their own. I had to go thorough the clips and take them apart and make separate frames so that I could work on the timing and add what I needed to add. Talk about a learning process! I actually enjoyed the creative process, but in trying to make it user friendly and easier to follow and understand, I think I lost track of some of the reading concepts that needed to be covered with Audacity. Hence, I decided to create a new video that could explain the vocabulary ideas from the lesson plan. By using the two projects, I think that I can adequately convey my ideas without it being too overbearing and burdensome. One video would have been too complex in my opinion. When the Audacity is complete, I shall finish this reflection. As for now, I am doing a malware scan on my computer because I cannot open my Marshall email. I am hoping that will solve the problem! Wish me luck!! It is early Thursday morning and the Audacity portion of the project is completed. I am pretty satisfied with the overall completion of it. I was amazed at how much I enjoyed working with this medium. Reworking the video to illustrate the vocabulary aspects was fun! Maybe I will post my research like that. Who knows!! (No, I will follow the rubric!) I didn't get any help from my partner for this other than some of the slides I took from the video. He found the pictures and the slides that have the black background with the white typing are his. He needs credit for that. I was very happy for having had this experience. I hope I did not bug the daylights out of the professor. I really think that by using this technology we were forced to put our learning into practice. At least I was. Reading and writing definitions about concepts is totally different than actually showing how they are used. Now that the semester is winding down and I am putting the finishing touches on all my projects, it is good to see what I have learned this semester. I wish that I had used a couple of the pre-reading techniques with my clinical II class. Having the students list what they know about a subject would have helped my teaching and their learning. I will remember this for the future. I learned a lot in this class this semester. I hope to put it to practice in the future.

Aucacity project was posted to blogger.com. I tried to download here but the file was too big. :(
By the way, I loved Erin and Olivia's video. I would really like to know how they did all that neat stuff!!