Week 3

• Analysis- When I analyze students and what goals they intend to reach as part of my course, I begin from the top down. My first question is what is my topic?  For example I am teaching a Special ed Pre-algebra class. I then look at my student population- where some students could be in algebra and some should be in elementary math. I then give it a go at teaching my first day set up a straight forward here is the book, these are the chapters and this is the course goal. That is just the beginning! The actual analysis of my population begins at this point. I then look at the first quiz the first week. I listen to the questions and I pay attention to who is interacting with me and who will never contacts me. Once I have the class population in perspective I then begin the process of taking the core curriculum requirements and developing it around my students.

• Course Goals- My course goals are set by a combination of core curriculum requirements and population of the class, including their personal goals. 

• Learning Objectives and Design- Learning objectives are personalized to each individual student. Once I know where that student is in perspective to the course requirements I can then personalize the educational plan. All of this has to happen within the first week of class, otherwise students feel as though they have no direction. 

       The course tours were very interesting because they give a different perspective from many different styles. Since I tend to be Eclectic in my teaching style I like to think that I can use these examples to build my own courses from these examples.

My link is a page on Online Course Design information page:  http://www.samford.edu/ctls/archives.aspx?id=2147484104

Week 4

Hello,
After reading chapter 5 and watching the video, I went back to my Syllabi  and thought about how it guided my students and put it in perspective to the ones posted. I found that I treat my Syllabus more as a general contract that states for students, what specific items will be due and graded. Most of my students mostly want to know about what counts for grades and when is everything due.

The other important aspects are a general description of the course and what the goals are for me as the instructor to guide the students on what is the focus of the class. Finally I keep it short and concise. I do not have students who read every detail and if I am not teaching teachers, I am teaching special education students so the shorter the better.

As far as when I start teaching the class I structure it week to week. I give the whole weeks due dates on Sunday (online) and the first due date is Tuesday the last is Friday.

If I am teaching a short course such as four weeks, I set up the class so that all material can be handed in the last week. I do not announce this per say, but if I have stragglers, I do then announce specific items due and I announce that the, last week is a review week including handing in missing assignments and review before the Final.

A good video about Sylabi.
This is an effective step by step explanation of how to build a syllabus for an online class:

Week 2

I scored an 11 on the beginner’s questionnaire,  I am reflecting my mixed form of pedagogy, which is exactly how I teach. I am fortunate in the sense that my groups are usually small and I have to adjust my style when I suddenly find myself with more than six students. With one on one or online I can switch between student based and teacher based depending on the moment and where each of our goals are. I find that as an educational therapist and an instructor in an educational therapy program my students arrive with set ideas on what they are trying to find out. This automatically puts me in a position of teaching student based and at the same time I have long term goals that I wish to communicate to my student. Therefore using the moments given to me I guide the student while allowing them to guide me. I would prefer more hands on and less me telling them, but I find that sometimes it is just faster to say hey just do it this way! or other times I feel as though I am to exhausted to be that creative that I can just weave a concept into a person personal interest, but when I do (and most of the time I do) I seem to get a much better outcome.

Week 1

Name and location:

I am Michaela De Sapio Yazar I was in the second half of this class  last semester I had a great time with the work and fellow students, I look forward to another semester. I am blogging from, SiliconValley CA.

My general introduction:

I am a teacher by accident. I started when I was in high school by volunteering at the Children's Museum of Los Angeles and then every few years I would tutor, sign up for teaching part-time and substitute teach. When I decided to homeschool I went on the adventure of my life. I homeschooled My kids and any other kid whose parents would come to me for help. Five years in I decided to become more official and got my Masters in special education and my certificate in educational therapy and here I am having developed an eclectic teaching career. Most of the time I love it sometimes I wonder what I got myself into.

 My experience with my online classes is an instructor:

I was just appointed when I tried to apply my new found skills to my online UCSC courses that I teach at an extension. Although they like my work the university did not allow videos posted on any public site, or a blog also posted on any public site. Using Google plus hangouts was the only acceptable site. The first week of classes I had started with the blog and I got positive feedback from the students and kick started the course with a positive tone. This semester my personal goal is to take the course material I am learning here and properly integrate it into the UC webpage we are required to use.

Elephant and I in front of the Pantheon Rome Italy