I have vowed over and over again to be a blogger, a good blogger, an interesting blogger, a consistent blogger. I am not. I sit here at my laptop feeling guilty because I do not post often. I will try.
Since my ED 620 class is required to post, I will post too. I suspect nobody will read it, but that’s not the point. I try to model reflective learning, yet I tend to consistently avoid it personally.
In order to start this re-blogging mentality, I wanted to start off my sharing my “pain.” I have 2 online graduate classes that I am currently teaching as of yesterday. Each class is exciting, interesting, and great fun to teach. But one is a new class and is taking much of my time related to planning and designing. I am always uncomfortable with new courses and I always suspect that I will not be able to create a valuable learning experience for students. I think I’m usually wrong, but there is a lot of stress that I place upon myself.
The other “pain” I am feeling is that me and my family are at a beach house this week I probably shouldn’t share this, in case a student does actually read my post. But in reality, I guess it doesn’t matter. I don’t think it was a good idea to plan a vacation and the first week of classes on the same week, but I think we’ll all survive. I have great Internet access, all the time in the world to devote to class, and no other commitments.
I hope I can live up to my and my students’ expectations!
Dr. John McCullough 
Brutal honesty is good. We are heading to Disney for a week during this class and I will need to stay focused. Enjoy your beach house! No such thing as Summer stress 🙂
The beauty of online classes is the ease of access we encounter during this point of our digital age.
Hey John I like the blogging. Like you I’m a procrastination blogger. Almost 10 yrs ago I took ED 620 as part of ITSC, vowed to blog….and didn’t. Now I’m 2 weeks away from Masters in Computer Security Management. Now I’m vowing to manage cyber security.
10 years ago… come on, it can’t be that long… we’re not getting that old… Great to read of your progress toward Computer Security Management. I can’t imagine you will have troubles finding a job!
John-
As I am reading your post, I had a flashback to last semester. In December, I too had to learn new courses, new software, new content. The classes were like 620 – fun, interesting, enjoyable to teach. So why did I feel hesitant – because it was something new. Uncomfortable was not even close to how I was feeling. I always try to be a perfectionist (sometimes it’s a downfall) – imagine the stress I placed on myself. Everyday, I would question, “Am I doing this right? Are my students even learning?” Well, now that the semester is over, I gained that much needed confidence. It took 5 months to earn it – do I know everything, no. But what I do know is I taught my students and they learned from me (their exact words). In the end- that’s the feeling I’m chasing and why I teach. I’m sure class will be great – every experience is a valuable experience.
By the way, this is my first blog/post/reply.
Ken, glad to read this was your first blog post reply… that’s cool, makes me feel good! You would think after over 28 years of teaching, I would stop questioning myself. However, I think being unsure is a tremendous motivator. So I guess my worst characteristic may also be one of my better ones… thanks for the awesome reply!
John,
Hope you had are having an awesome vacation. I look forward to working with you and my classmates. While I prefer the face to face method of teaching I find that you always show me really exciting things that I can take back to my students and I think that is due to the freedom allowed in this sort of setting. You give us avenues to information and it is up to us to follow those roads to where they lead. It is a great way for us to build our own knowledge. Anyhow I’m excited about the roads you will show me this time.
Matt Irons