Continuing My Own Education

I've been teaching for nearly 10 years and I've recently gotten the go-back-to-school bug. With two young kids and a full teaching schedule, pursuing another degree is not appealing. I really don't want a doctorate in this point in my career and I can't really think of a master's program that I want to enroll in (or pay for). But recently at College of DuPage, I got an email about an opportunity to take a graduate-level class through Aurora University for $325--INCLUDING the book.

I didn't think I could ever beat that price, and the subject was of interest--teaching studentes for the workplace. So a month ago, I attended my first class.

I love it. The discussion is stimulating and the instructor is open-minded. Everything we do in this class serves a greater purpose: to apply new ways of teaching to a specific class I'm teaching. How cool is that!

Right now I'm working on a resource website that I'm creating as an assignment called the Writing Resources Toolbox. In it I'm creating links to tools and resources for my students and for other instructors.

The student section has (or will have) both a Grammar Toolbox and a Writing Style Toolbox. The toolboxes will contain links to webpages and interactive exercises to help students brush up on grammar- and style-related issues in their writing.

The instructor section is the most exciting for me and includes Social Media Resources, Google Apps Resources, Additional Online Resources, and Web 2.0 Resources. I'm also hoping to create sections for Using Blackboard Effectively and Writing Assignments.

I'm most excited about this section. Basically, whenever I'm in my reader reviewing my favorite blogs (like Teach Online, Free Technology for Teachers, and Blogging about the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom), I add a link to anything useful out there that I've been successful implementing, would like to implement, or would simply like to learn more about.

What new technologies have you implemented in the classroom--online or F2F?