Is it all worth it??? Yes!

Maintaining an online presence consistently, when not teaching online exclusively, is hard!  Ever since I got my masters in online teaching and learning I  have known this.  While having the ability for my kids to access learning online is important and saves me (and them) a lot of grief it is also very time consuming.  Recently a colleague of mine asked me how much time I spend outside school working on school, and I said I average 10 + hours a week at least and he asked what I was doing during those hours.  Of course, most of the time is spent grading and planning, but 1 1/2 - 2 hours of that is also preparing my online presence.  He was surprised by the amount of time I spent developing my online resources and wondered if it was worth it?  As I thought about what my online content added to my classes and the time I spent preparing them I realized that it truly is worth the time put in!  My kids have access to all the notes given in class, all of the assignments I hand out in class, links to important information and resources beyond what I teach in class, videos that we watch in class, a calendar detailing homework assignments for everyday of the school year, access to the gradebook and blogs.  It takes me a lot of work each week to get this all up and going but when I think about the time this saves in the big picture its worth it!  I don't have to print out extra homework assignments for kids if they are missing them, they can, I don't have to spend time reteaching notes, the kids can look them up themselves and review them at their own convenience.  I don't have to provide books in class for research for long periods of time as resources are available online 24/7, and I don't have to spend a ton of time catching up kids if they are absent, the information is available to them the day they are out, they simply need to access it from home that evening to get caught up!  The 2 hours I spend preparing this resource probably saves me 3-5 hours worth of grief weekly and probably saves my students time as well in the big picture.  Again, it's not easy to maintain an online presence, its hard work!  But the time it saves me in the big picture makes it worth it!