LIFELONG LEARNING

PRINCIPLE #5: Effective online teachers recognize ongoing professional development is a central component of their success.

Caring and mindful online teachers:

Continue their professional development. They keep learning and adopt the right technology, the right strategies, to maintain a dynamic and effective connection with their students.

Reflections

Where I was.

I started teaching for Saddleback College in January 2019. Before that, I taught French, Spanish and German as a Teaching Assistant at U.C.I., while I was doing my doctoral studies. At U.C.I., I became conscious of the increase in online education but I was very immersed in my studies and our Department did not have online classes.

It was at my arrival at Saddleback College that I discovered online education and was advised to become an online teacher due to the steady increase in demand for online and hybrid classes.

Where I am.

I can't believe that we are actually in April 2020 and that I'm in the process of getting certified in online teaching.
- I took the following @One online courses in 2019:
  1. Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning (I highly recommend this course if you are a neophyte in Canvas, as I was)
  2. Humanizing Teaching and Learning
  3. Culturally Responsive Teaching
  4. Dynamic Online Teaching
  5. Digital Citizenship (The 4 last courses leading to this Capstone Project)

Where I'm headed.

I have taught French, my second language, German, my fourth language, and actually I teach Spanish, my fifth language. I will keep traveling to improve my language skills and immerse myself in the everyday life and culture of the countries where these languages are spoken. The benefit I gain in terms of the ease, the comfort with which I teach my material, serves my students. But I also want to develop improved ways to incorporate my travels and experiences into my course and enable my students to travel virtually with me. Therefore, I need to keep improving my use of the new technology at my disposal.

I'm a student for life and an @One advocate, so I plan to take more courses that will teach me how to improve my teaching skills, my course design and how to use the ever evolving technology. This certificate is just the beginning of a long journey in which I hope to grow and become a better teacher.

Examples

Integrate my travels into my classes through new technology.

Since 2019, I have been accompanying the Saddleback students on their Study Abroad Program to Salamanca, Spain, for two months during the spring semester. I see it as a professional development; a wonderful opportunity to practice my Spanish, improve my language skills, and to be more at ease teaching Spanish, as it is not my native language. I also endeavor, each year, to improve my knowledge of the Spanish culture, history... and everyday life, more social than in the United States.

This year, I started to integrate my Salamanca experience into my other online classes through new technology. In my weekly videos, I started to talk about Salamanca and promote the Study Abroad Program, knowing that at Saddleback many students receive scholarships if they desire to go. I was planning on taking videos of the city and other places I planned to visit. However, the Corona Virus Pandemic forced us to be repatriated before the end of the Program. 😭

Image of the book "Culturally Responsive Teaching"

Build my library

I have bought several of the books mentioned in the @One courses hoping I can gain more knowledge and will better apply some of the strategies taught in the courses:

Social Presence in Online Learning. Multiple Perspectives on Practice and Research by Aimee L. Whitesida, Amy Garrett Dikkers, and Karen Swan
Culturally Responsive Teaching. Theory, Research, and Practice by Geneva Gay
Culturally Tesponsive Teaching & THE BRAIN . Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond

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