The first class was interesting. I guess I never really thought of the Structural, Human Resource, Political and Symbolic Frames when thinking about leadership. When we did some analysis on situations, it was rare that a specific leadership frame would fit exactly what the need was. It was very prevelant that a good boss needs to fit into many of the categories to be a successful leader. What the class did was make me think back to some good bosses that I have had in the past. One really sticks out in my mind from the construction field. He was a great leader and a caring person. He could be stern when needed but yet lenient once the work was done. I am also lucky to have a good boss at my school right now as well.
As far as my leadership ability, I know I am an ideas man and that I need people to help me along the way. Leading canoe groups to the BWCA each year has taught me a lot about leadership. One problem is that I feel confident around people but very shy in groups of professional adults. I tend to clam up and not say much of anything. Hopefully this course will help me with that ability to feel more cofident in a group setting.

Final Class

Today I created a couple cartoons in my class and the students loved it! I plan to add that to my website as well. I also got a few compliments on the wiki and I got the 6th grade staff to watch the tutorial. I have the feeling we will have wikis for all sorts of subjects in the near future. When I show the students how easy it is to create powerpoints and documents, they get very excited to use them. Tonight I look forward to viewing what other teachers have created and to borrow some of their ideas for my own website.

Web 2.0

I am beginning to understand Web 2.0. So far, I find it very interesting. The first tutorial on wikis was about a group getting set up for a camping trip which was right up my alley! I intend to create one for the hiking group I lead to the BWCA each year. I also tried my hand at creating a 6th grade team wiki this week. Our PLC team meetings could use so many things that a wiki provides that I am pretty excited about it. I hope to go over what a wiki is with the group this Friday at our meeting and then even go into what a googledoc is. Not to be negative, but I know I will have some convincing to do with some of the team members who are not very computer savvy. When I see how useful it is and that wikis are being used at the H.S. it frustrates me. I asked our librarian/technology expert why we can't use these at the middle school level and she explained that it is because we can't allow middle school students to have email accounts. I still find that very frustrating. Are other middle schools using this technology? I read somewhere that other middle schools post questions on their website and students email in their answers to win prizes! Eventually I think it will trickle down to the middle school level.

A few interesting things we learned tonight were the technologies that support strategies that work. I like this shortcut for different technologies when I will be teaching science. I also enjoyed the idea of using cartoons and the Voki. Humor is a useful tool to get students involved and interacting. We were also given a worksheet to the technology selection criteria which I can see being useful in the future as well. Due to some frustration this week, I was not able to access my wolfmail account. I called a few times and each time I never received a returned call. It was a bit frustrating to say the least.

Website Creation

I spent some time reviewing a number of websites. What I have found so far is that the teacherweb.com is very user friendly and contains many features that I see myself using in the future. The online lockers that come with the website are something I could see myself using in the future.
As far as a website creation from scratch, I guess I will struggle through it but I was very impressed with the website creation site available through Googlesites. I would like to create a site for the hiking and canoeing club that I run as well as one for Chess Club, Ski Club and perhaps even my carpentry business. The trouble that I am having with the carpentry website is that I have very few pictures at all. When building things over the years, I really regret that I did not take more pictures!
I think I will now make my focus for the website on the outdoor adventures that I lead. For one thing, there are plenty of pictures that I can access, and for another, new people would find comfort seeing pictures of previous trips to make them feel comfortable signing up.
I am just amazed at what is available through Google. I wonder if the wiki will be gone as well as ning sites after seeing how easy it is to create a site through google. Perhaps Google will provide everything people will need in the future!!