EDLD 5366 Reflection

Upon completion of this digital graphics course, I have learned several new ways in which digital graphics can be incorporated effectively into education. I have also come to better understand the purpose for and methods in which to incorporate digital graphics into my lessons. Before this course, I was never inclined to do so. Although I have made numerous computer-based lessons, I was never aware of the design principles that should have gone into them. After learning about the principles of design and becoming more familiar with how to utilize them, I see what I have been doing wrong and that it is easy to correct my mistakes. I also feel more comfortable with the idea of including animation in my lessons. I think that my students would greatly enjoy a little animation in their learning, and would appreciate the fact that I made it myself!

As I progressed through this course, I valued the videos and assigned readings to gain greater understanding of each assignment. Although there was one instance where I placed too much importance on a reading assignment and attempted to use Gimp to create an animation. Needless to say, I spent a few days exasperatedly trying to figure that one out! But, as with all of my other courses, I greatly appreciated the opportunity to interact with my fellow students for help and guidance. The discussion board is a great tool in keeping our class connected, and reading my classmates’ input really gives me many viewpoints to consider.

In my upcoming courses, I hope to have opportunities to show the knowledge I have gained in this course. I would love to be presented with more assignments utilizing my new graphic design skills, such as designing forms and documents or creating lessons. I also hope to once again have the opportunity to work with a group of my fellow students. I continue to learn so much from them each time we have a group assignment and I truly enjoy collaborating with them. With the new skills that I have obtained, I hope to challenge myself with creating my own classroom website. I have attempted it before, because I felt that it would be a great tool in connecting my classroom with parents and other school stakeholders. I hope to use my new knowledge to successfully achieve this goal.

EDLD 5363 Week 5

Phew! This class has been a great, yet challenging, learning experience. Prior to this course, I had very little experience creating videos. Now I feel much more comfortable in filming, editing, and sharing videos for use in my classroom.

I will admit that I was a little lost last weekend before I attending the web conference on Sunday. Dr. Abernathy had some very helpful information for us and assured us that we were doing a great job so far. I was also glad to hear that our priority should be completing our project, so we should not worry about the discussion board and readings for week five.

I have also enjoyed working with my fellow classmates. I had the opportunity to work with three awesome ladies and I have learned a lot from them. It was great to have others to consult with and get opinions from while working on this project.

Although this class has been a challenge, I have learned a lot and was given the opportunity to collaborate with my wonderful classmates. I have enjoyed it and hope that more of our classes are set up this way.

EDLD 5363 Week 2

Wow! This week's assignment was a challenge! I don't have much experience with video editing software and it was difficult for me to learn to navigate through new programs. I had a lot of trouble with Adobe Premiere. I found that it was very complicated and that I did not have enough time to devote to learning it well enough to teach it. So, I chose to explore iMovie a little more. I had used it last week to create my photo story, but I learned that it is capable of much more when I explored it today.

I created a short tutorial of the basics of iMovie for my assignment. I hope that it provides enough information for even beginners, like myself, to use it to create and edit videos.

ELDL 5363 - Web Conference #1

I attended our first web conference on Tuesday night and I'm glad that I did! I had many questions about our first assignment and about this course overall. Many of my classmates asked the questions that I was wondering myself, so I got lots of information from Dr. Abernathy and my classmates, as well. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into the conference, I was disconnected and could not log back in. I'm not sure what happened and was wondering if anyone else experienced this problem. Overall, I have enjoyed conferencing with my professors and classmates. They are always very informative and I feel very supported and encouraged after each one. I look forward to many more!

EDLD 5301: Course Reflection

I have enjoyed this course and learned so much about how to implement action research and use it to improve the quality of my work. Through the different aspects of this course, I have acquired many different viewpoints and ideas from my instructors and fellow students. I believe that each learning tool provided in this course has helped me to become a more proficient action researcher.
The most useful learning tool in this course, for me, has been the discussion board. I loved viewing my fellow cohorts’ experiences and ideas working with action research. It was very useful to me to be able to compare their opinions and practices with my own. I also enjoyed receiving feedback from them on my posts and greatly valued their advice and suggestions.
I also enjoyed the required readings provided for our course. The texts explained so much about our research plans and gave excellent examples, which made the information easy to read and understand. The readings were interesting, to the point, and always explained any questions that I may have had prior to my reading them. The text, Leading With Passion and Knowledge, provided in-depth information into creating my action research plan through “wonderings” and how to implement it. It also went on to provide information on how to use the information that I acquire through my plan and how to continue assessing myself. The text, Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools, also helped by providing insight into why we do action research and what drives most administrators to participate in action research plans.
The weekly assignments really went hand-in-hand with our readings. Each question was linked to certain reading assignment, and the answer could always be found as indicated. The assignments improved my understanding of the readings by compelling me to look deeper into the information and think about how this information was useful to me.
My blog was an enjoyable, useful tool throughout this course. I received a piece of feedback to my posting that really made me anxious to complete my research plan and share it with my fellow students so that we can compare our findings. I have noticed that several of my cohorts have chosen a similar research topic and I am curious to see how our findings are alike or how they may differ.
The videos provided also answered many of the questions that I may have had about implementing my action research plan. I greatly enjoyed the video assignment of week two that allowed me to hear stories from real administrators, such as Principal Johnny Briseno of Angleton ISD. These administrators gave great testimonies of using action research in their jobs and how it affected them.
Each component of this course has provided very useful information about action research. I feel that I am well prepared to implement my action research plan because of each information source provided throughout the course.

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2009). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 9 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, N.Y.: Eye on Education.

My Action Research Plan

Renee Suire Action Research Plan

5301 Week 2 Reflection

This past week was our first week back to school, so I've had some difficulty juggling my job work and grad school work.  I hope to begin managing my time a little better in the coming weeks.

I can't beleive that week two is already over!  This course is moving by so quickly and I am pleased about how much I've learned so far.  I been enjoying our reading assignments, but this week I enjoyed the videos much more.  I feel like listening to the administrators talk about their real experiences "stuck" so much more than the readings.  I hope there are more real videos to come!

I'm a little nervous about my action plan.  I haven't had much time to sit down with my advisor because she's been busy, too.  I hope to schedule a meeting with her this week to help me fill out the action plan template.  Now, I'm anxious to start week 3!