My MOOC

I am over half way through the MOOC I nervously signed up for about a month ago.  This class has reaffirmed what I already knew about myself.  I am a nerd who really enjoys learning.  Which is good since I spend my day encouraging others TO learn... I have looked forward to reading about each week's topic and then working to implement it in my classroom. 
The first week we learned about Connected Learning which is a educational philosophy that encourages teachers to create learning communities for their students using technology.  I created a blog for my class.  My students LOVE it! They really like writing something and then waiting to see who has responded to them.  This week I had two students who aren't typical homework completers  work on their blog at home because they wanted to make sure it looked just right before the rest of the class read it.  :)
Last week we talked about Personalization, the practice of designing lessons that meet specific needs and interests of students.  I started the week with the attitude, "I already do this every day for my students.  I am not going to get anything out of this week." However, I was proven wrong.  I was given new tools and ideas that will enhance what I am already doing in class.  This week we started working on class presentations where the students will have to "teach" the class lessons we are reviewing for a test.  One of my students has a lot of anxiety about talking in front of the class instead of excusing her from the assignment or completely modifying it, I taught the class to make a talking avatar which I learned about in class.  She will have the avatar do the talking for her while she is in front of the class. 
This week we are discussing Collaborative Learning.  I love this idea of giving the students more ownership in learning.  Students are expected to work together to discuss ideas and solve problems while the teacher steps back and acts as a moderator rather than a lecturer.  I watched the video "Collaborative Learning Builds Deeper Understanding." I found the video to be very inspirational. I already allow my students to work together on occasion to ask each other questions as they work on homework. It was an interesting experience to start.  I was a little nervous that they would just end up copying answers from each other but with a little structure and guidance the students are actually explaining how they got answers instead of just simply giving out answers. 
I am excited to try some of the new ideas I learned from the video. My favorite is to try having the students work together to check homework and discuss answers to start class.  It would be a good refresher to start the period. 
I really liked the way the students mapped out the discussion to make sure the conversations were balanced and allowed for all students to participate.  I am not sure the way that the teacher demonstrated in the video would necessarily be beneficial to my class since my class size is really small with the largest group being 5 students. I could develop another map so my students could have a visual of how the conversation went.
I really have enjoyed all this learning! My students have too! :)