Learning and Teaching Online Connections

 Professional Development Connections

As an active educator, I sought professional development on education, service learning, and teaching Spanish in person and online. In the last 20 years of my career, two pieces of training were of note. 

The first training of note was when I attended two Harvard Project Zero, Teaching for Understanding Summer Institutes.  At the first institute in 1996, I learned how to connect teaching languages to the arts, Multiple Intelligences, rubrics, and reflection at the heart of learning.  In the second institute in 2000, I created the Service-Learning Program I implemented at Casady School during my 18-year tenure at that institution. 

The second training of note, came on a yearly basis from 2000 to 2018  when a selected number of students and I attended NYLC Annual Service-Learning Conferences and Bi-Annual Global Service Learning Research Conferences  At those conferences, my students participated and presented project initiatives at the national and international levels.  

My online professional and personal development started with Teaching for Understanding and Multiple Intelligences Harvard Project Zero online courses.  

Personal Development Online Connections

After a brief conversation with a parent who was auditing courses online, I enrolled in the Science of Happiness, a course facilitated by Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, one of 10 courses on the edX platform. I audited the course, but never completed it.  I will re-visit it when I finish the courses I am taking now.

Pandemic Google Classroom Connections

As a virtual grandmother sitter, during Covid-19, I created a Goggle Classroom, Learning-Aprendiendo.  My interaction with my grandchildren has been limited and the site needs a lot of work to be motivational and interactive.  I hope to improve it as I learn how to teach online from a university in Australia.

Before starting this blog, I created a Connections Google Classroom.  I am keeping there all the WWW educational connections I am making from 2020 and beyond.   

As a mentor and tutor Spanish volunteer teacher, I created Cafe Espanol/Spanish Cafe to share how technology is helping enhance and/or transform some of my teaching ways.

Coursera MOOC Connections

After Governor Cuomo's Daily Covid-19 Briefings brought to my attention Contact Tracing, I audited my first Coursera online course.  Mr. Bloomberg offered the course facilitated by John Hopkins University free of charge to anyone interested.  I took the course and received a certificate of participation.  The course used video explanations and tests but did not provide discussion groups.  I liked the organization of the course and the self-assessment.  It motivated me to take my subsequent Coursera MOOC courses. 

Auditing Coursera MOOC courses became an option to keep connected and learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic.  I just finished auditing Music for Wellness, a class facilitated by Berklee School of Music.  I enjoyed the organization of the course, creative lecture-videos, and engaging/creative project-based assessment.  

A new component made Music for Wellness even more special.  This course provided weekly HOWDY meetings, a Zoom-like time where if Ambassador facilitators were not available, the students used the time to get to know each other,  ask questions, share challenges and the process of what they created. 

The first HOWDY meeting for Music for Wellness had no facilitator and only four student participants.  The course has ended and the four of us are still connected and wanting to continue our online communication motivated by a loving and kind classmate, Padi. Padi is a retired physical therapist.  Her active work was on the rehabilitation of patients at nursing homes.  Now, she donates her expert knowledge with Zoom classes for mainly seniors  Padi stated in an invitation to participate email,   "The purpose of the breathing and stretching exercises is to make our muscular-skeletal structures resilient to tolerate activities of daily living with more control.  There is a 30-minute Yoga Pranayama portion.  Exercises are done on an upright chair like a dining chair.  A yoga mat is recommended for the feet to remain steady on the floor." 

Padi and I have started an online collaboration which I labeled Connecting Creativity.  She is going to connect to the creativity of the other members of the Music for Wellness group this Friday, 12/18/2020 to share a project idea.  She hopes to start a Music for Wellness Howdy Team online collaboration.  The team decided to meet on a weekly basis and discuss a book on Music and Health.

The enjoyment with the Music for Wellness MOOC course and the goal of playing one instrument to sing with my grandchildren as well as the hope to be a more engaging virtual grandmother sitter inspired me to audit Introduccion a la Guitarra by Berklee and a course on Learning How to Teach Online facilitated by a USNW Sydney University in Australia.  

So far, in the guitar online class, I have learned about guitar vocabulary in three different languages, Spanish, English, and the language of music.  I tuned my guitar with a tuner I placed on my iPhone and began to play two cords A minor and E major.  My fingertips do hurt, but I am beginning to gain speed.  In my Learning How to Teach Online course, I am behind as the volume of the reading resources is copious.  I advance at a turtle pace and have huge challenges, but I made my first Vimeo video birthday card for my grandaughter's third birthday.  I cannot publish it here because I will have to share it on YouTube and I am trying to keep it more private.  I used a template and pictures I have taken with a provided musical link.  My next video will be introducing myself to a possible class.  

Technology is like cooking a pizza, you can click and use
or you can create it from scratch and even grow your own codes =)

I read an article about how seniors are afraid to use technology and rely on their younger friends or family members.  I used to be like that but the Covid-19 times pushed me to rely on myself and learn by trial and error.  I cannot tell you how many times I have procrastinated to start learning for fear of failure before I started something.  Now, I see failure as the best learning opportunity to start again and again.  After I failed at something with one YouTube tutor, I find three others that answer parts of my questions and bring solutions to my challenges.  By the fifth YouTube video tutorial, I am on my way to an unsophisticated usage of a tool.  Then, the more I use it, the more sophisticated I become.  Baby Boomers, my message to us is "Let's be in Flow with Technology! "We have all the time in the world, if lucky enough to be retired with some financial security."