It's been a long time coming, But I know a change is gonna come

I just spent an hour or so this evening working with my assignment 3 "team mates," Amanda and Anica, using Google Documents. None of us had used this tool before and while using the chat feature of the program we all realized that not only had we changed "our" teachers, we had changed ourselves. I love this kind of learning.

The process is almost always more rewarding for me than the results and this assignment was no different. I was very apprehensive going in; why did we have to work in groups? what were we really supposed to do? ugh, I just want to get this last assignment done so I can enjoy my summer :) I am now so glad that we did this. I "knew" Amanda and Anica from a previous course but have never met them in person. I was so glad that Amanda asked us to work together because I knew from our required chat sessions in our previous course that we were all committed to the program and all had different backgrounds so could bring different viewpoints to the assignment. Working together, sharing ideas, editing a document that we could all see at the same time was exciting. We were able to solve each others' problems with formatting, editing, and content and worked together sharing ideas for a group introduction. I really feel like we collaborated and that our "Level of Use" actually went up as we worked.

I really liked using the CBAM for this assignment. I understand that there is much more depth to the change model than we used for the assignment but its basic principals can easily be used by anyone. I would like to combine the CBAM and my growth using Google Documents with a group of staff at my school. I think Google Documents could solve some issues for our students and provide a way for us to share ideas as a staff. We often have issues with students working on assignments at home on their PC's and then not being able to open them at school where we use Macs. Using Google Documents would solve this. I was aware of this Google tool before I began the assignment, but like many students, actually using it made me a believer. I would like to try this when I begin working with the Social Studies 8 students (and their teacher Marlene - my "change" teacher) and using a research model. I believe that many of the students will find it easier to work in a group if they don't always have to be in the same physical space.

I am excited to continue to use Google tools but also to do follow-up with Marlene, the teacher I worked with through the CBAM. I really like that Marlene and I have a plan for her continued "change" and that it seemed less daunting once we actually mapped it out. How sad is it that it is only the middle of July and I am looking forward to getting "back at it" in September? A friend asked me the other day "If you could be anyone and money wasn't an issue, who would you be?" I said me, a teacher :)