Packing Slip 
item |
The View From Where I Sit |
contact |
Donna Rebadow (Paradise Valley Community College) d.rebadow@pvmail.maricopa.edu |
credits |
ASU Summer Institute workshop |
college(s) |
Paradise Valley Community College |
discipline(s) |
ALL |
summary |
A innovative way to have online students introduce themselves to their classmates using a Discussion Board. |
details |
These are the "Instructions" that I put in the Discussion Board that I call "The View From Where I Sit:" =================== 1. Do NOT "reply" to this thread. Just READ these instructions! 2. Read my "View From Where I Sit" entry first. 3. Think about what you want to share about yourself with your classmates. 4. Then "write" AND "post" your "View Point." 5. Then go back in and write a short "welcome" and at least one comment to each person in the class, in a SEPARATE Thread. The comment should be something about what you might have in common or something about what they wrote. Please just don't write "Hi! Welcome to class." Let them know that you read their introduction. 6. E-mail me if you have any questions. 7. WARNING: Please keep all introductions AND your replies on a "General" level. 8. Let's all start out on the "right foot!" 9. The Deadline for this Forum is xxx Thanks, Donna ============== My students respond better, more often and more in-depth with "who they are" when they have had to describe their surroundings when going online for class. It's really important to set the tone for the students, so I've found it important to begin the Board with my own "thread:" ============== Hello and Welcome! From "where I sit" I can see my back yard. Most of the time I will be answering you from my "Den." My computer workstation is situated by my back window where I can work quietly and keep an eye on my dogs. I am a Puppy Raiser for the Eye Dog Foundation. The first dog that I trained is "Sadie." She is now four 1/2 years old and I have her back with me. She was gravely ill last February and we almost lost her. Many people have been working with us to restore her health. She is stable now and we volunteer as a "Pet Therapy" team at Maricopa Medical Center on Wednesday afternoons. We are writing a book that we hoped will be published in the Fall titled = "Wednesdays with Sadie: Miracles at Maricopa." From "where I sit" I also have a huge calendar so that I can keep track of where I am with each class during the semester. It’s important to me to keep up with assignments and grading so that I can have the time to work with you individually as much as I can. Teaching 3 online classes makes it necessary for me to stay highly organized and on track as much as I can. From "where I sit" my dogs can come and get me to play with them when they think that I’ve been at the computer too long. I can answer you all and take as many little "play breaks" with them as I can… In addition to Sadie, I have two "pets." Mariah is the oldest and is a 9 year old Akita mix. Tasha is a four year old "mutt." I got her from the R.E.S.C.U.E. organization and she is a lab/beagle/spaniel mix. As you can tell, my students and my dogs take up most of my time and effort. In addition, I try to volunteer in the community as much as I can. As I said, I volunteer at Maricopa Medical Center, I also volunteer at Andre House and the Crisis Nursery. I am very active in my church and I also own and fly a Cessna 172 that is housed at Deer Valley Airport. Also, I am taking a guitar class here at PVCC and enjoy that very much. I like to draw and do calligraphy and I write poetry whenever I can steal some time for myself on the week-ends. So follow this type of format and please share with all of us - "The View From Where YOU Sit!" Welcome to class! ============== Students are required to write their own "viewpoint" and write a short "hi" to their classmates. I have had such success with this discussion that I now have it for all my online (3) classes. The discussion takes many twists and turns that I would never have figured on or predicted. These are very powerful sharings. Here's what one of my students recently wrote: "...I come from xxx State and just moved out here in Arizona from xxx for about 3-4 months now. I was prior active U.S.Navy for about four years and had a lot of fun traveling and being on the USS xxx aircraft carrier for about xxx years of my military career. I also participate in being in the Reserves and also working part-time on top of college.... The view from where I sit is very rewarding because I finally am able to be a college student full time and the best thing too is that I won't have to struggle as much because the military has helped me become more motivated in my activities, goals, and commitment for my success....." This student received lots of answers with lots of support. Here I was - thinking about a "physical space" as my "view" and they write about "personal space...." WOW Note! As a professional courtesy to the owner of this package, if you use some aspect of this package or have some thoughts about it, please share your feedback via the comments form below. |
comments |
Most recent comment about this package:
On Mon Feb 09, 2004 at 1:24AM Alan Levine <alan.levine@domail.maricopa.edu> said: |
shareback |
A "Shareback" cites the places on the web that mention, reference, or use this MLX package, and "shares" that information back here (more about shareback...) Most recent shareback for this package:MLX Package of the Week: The View from Where I Sit Sharebacks can be generated automatically by weblog tools. |
extra |
Last modified: Jan-26-2004 Date created: Jan-26-2004 Visitor count: 3667 Dublin Core Metadata record  |
Maricopa Learning eXchange
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