One of the benefits of having extra time is that I have the opportunity to explore. My last 7 years in classroom have made me a great teacher but feeling like I've lived in a cave. I spent the first few months spending a substantial amount of time looking into interesting programs, online resources, school models, and teacher resources. It always began as fascinating and interesting, but after about an hour of linking to new links, and new programs, I would find myself transitioning from excitement to frustration. I want to return to the classroom next school year and I just don't want to fall into the same cave. I wonder how many people there are working in the field of education who are not classroom teachers.
I found MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses. They are an amazing resource to keep yourself out of the cave. What I really like is that they are what you make of them. Some have more assignments and readings then others, some have tests. Others just put together ideas, resources and encourage people to participate and interact. The course I'm currently taking is though the university of edinburgh. It's not really applicable in classrooms but it's an intellectual challenge. Teaching like many professions can become monotonous, repetitive, and frustrating. People label our generation as Millennials. Sometimes called "Generation Me." Switching jobs frequently, comfortable with multi-tasking and technology. Our generation was growing and evolving as the internet was doing the same. MOOCs are a great way to keep from falling into a funk, exploring new ideas, and the choice to be as involved as you want to be. To be honest I don't really know what exactly what I'm doing in these MOOCs but I suggest people to try it. How wonderful is having some great minds of great institutions sharing their knowledge for free all over the world. Will college degrees really have as much value as certificates from a wide range of classes, from some of the greatest institutions in the world?
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