I just love it when I learn something and I think “when will I ever use this” and then I find myself using it! What a great feeling! Well that has happened to me a lot lately. When I took EPSY 474 and we had to evaluate a program, I thought when will I ever need to go through of all of this work. Well since then, I have had occasion to use many of the things that I learned in that class. OK, so I have not done a formal evaluation (and I hope I never have to) but I have used the surveying tools that I learned in that class. I LOVE SURVEYMONKEY.COM !! I am president of our local teacher’s union and I have had several occasions to create short surveys using surveymonkey.com . It is FREE and very simple to use. I have created a several question survey and sent it out to all of the teachers. The great part is that I don’t get bombarded with emails answering my questions but instead surveymonkey tallies it all up for me. The teachers love it because they click on a link and check some boxes and it is done (and anonymous). (Oh and in case you are thinking like a teacher and wonder if they are cheating – you can set it to only allow one response per computer so people can’t “vote” more than once)
Well, our school is getting online grades that parents can check (yes some of you are probably thinking – you don’t have that yet – well we will in a couple of weeks). Well, I teamed up with our tech guy and learned the teacher part of the software and then trained the other teachers. We are ready to roll it out to parents and we decided to start with a trial group of parents, to make sure that everything is working ok before we open it up to the masses (a great idea I think – and 474 got my wheels turning on this idea). We plan to give them a short training session (tomorrow actually) and then survey them (thanks to 474) and see what they liked and didn’t like – if they needed more training, what we could do better to prepare them… Anyway, I think that some of the program evaluation training has helped me to look at this training opportunity in a different way. I am hoping that everything runs smoothly (and with technology you never know).
I guess this is one of those “AHA” moments that I see my students have now and then. The “AHA” moments are the fuel in my teaching fire!
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September 27, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Melinda
Rita,
What a great feeling I am sure. It feels great when you are able to take information that you have learned and apply it in the classroom. We have learned about so many cool things through CTER. I have found that it takes me some time to process the information and then figure out a way to use it in my classroom. When I have some free time and my weekend aren’t so busy, I can’ wait to implement everything we have learned.
- Just curious, what grading system are you using. I love the fact that parents can check their student’s grades online, it cuts down on the numbers of emails I have to respond to about how their son/daughter is doing in school. On a side note, when are you done with CTER? December? and are you doing down for graduation?
Melinda
September 30, 2008 at 8:37 pm
insenar
Hi Rita -
, attendance, etc. all a click of a mouse, it’s called Skyward. It is really something to see. There are so many things that I’ve learned in this program and I am a little nervous about stepping out there to try them but…I will. I’m already using some of the projects within my district. It can be a little intimidating but it is exciting too.
I know exactly what you are talking about. My district now has the capability for parents to check their student’s grades, cafeteria balance – and what they ate –
Lorikay
September 30, 2008 at 8:43 pm
To Infinity and Beyond… « The Future of Learning
[...] September 30, 2008 Posted by insenar in Uncategorized. trackback Rita wrote a post that was great! She talked about how she is able to use the information and knowledge that [...]
October 13, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Jinhee
Thanks for great feedback about CTER, Rita and others. Rita, do you mind if I share your posting with other CTER staff? I’d like to let them know how useful CTER courses are for CTER students in real life.