Hi,
To begin with I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Eric Andrews. I am a middle school science teacher at GMS in Littleton. This is my second year at Goddard, but my 10th year in teaching, with 8 years in Cherry Creek School district. I have my BA in Biology with a minor in Education through MSCD, and my MA in information and learning from UCD. The title of my masters degree does not really give anyone an idea about what my area of specialty is, so I usually tell them that I have my masters in online learning and can make a really good online learning environment to either completely teach my classes online, or simply to provide a great learning environment for additional support for my students.
That said, I am really excited about taking this course, not because I am struggling to figure out how to approach learning with an emphasis on 21st century skills, but rather to bring my background and approach to my online endeavors more in line with the protocol of the district. In the years after completing my MA I had access to a LMS (Learning Management System) called Moodle that I used as my HUB in CCSD. For me it was the perfect platform as it had all of the tools I felt I needed to support my classes. Once I moved over to LPS that was a resource that was no longer available to me so I took a year off of having such a large presence online (which worked out because I was so busy in the new school/district that I would not have had the kind of time I needed to make the online site worth while for the kids:). Now, with year 2 kicking off, I am ready to, again, create and maintain a positive online presence. I have met with Dana to get some pointers about how I could build my HUB in Google sites, and have begun developing my own version of a LMS for my students. This class is going to help me continue to develop that site and enhance it so my students can again have access to as much support as possible to make their year in my science classroom successful.
In the first 3 weeks of school I have developed a very user friendly HUB that the students are beginning to utilize, their parents are visiting and commenting on, and I am feeling confident in. I am excited to see the resources that will be shared with us as the year goes on and to develop an even more helpful online learning environment for my students!
