Reflective Journal #11: What a Journey!

Going back to read every single blog since the beginning of the course has brought back so many memories. It reminded me of the diary i used to keep when i was young. I've come to realize that i learned a lot from this course, going through the difficulties  really makes the best learning outcomes. I've had a lot of challenges; setting up a blog, reflections and summaries, APA styles and of course the project. May be the biggest disappointment was repeating the first reading assignment, as i never needed to repeat any assignment before. But there's a first time for everything, it's when i  took the time to think about what went wrong wrong and what needed to be done, that's when i learned how to write a proper summary and how to cite my work properly. It was a practical application to "hands on the wall" activity!

Also taking the time to describe my school community made me think a lot about how i can contribute to my community and be a proactive teacher, sometimes you need to take the initiative so that you get the outcome you want, which also applies to the use of technology inside classrooms as a tool for learning. Although you may have a lot of obstacles and setbacks when it comes to applying new ideas but it's worth the effort at the end of the day. One of the recent setbacks i had recently was when students in my class were doing a peer learning activity and the school superintendent passed by the class window and thought that the class was chaotic which compromised my classroom management!!!! It could have discouraged and made me go back to traditional teaching ways but actually me and my students were enjoying the class time and students were motivated to learn and very relaxed! After of course meeting with her to clarify things, i decided i'm going to continue doing what i do, i finally got out of the box, how come i get back in?? :) :)

The project was actually one of the huge positive points of this course, although we were very reluctant to pursue it at the beginning but as the presentation time became near we were very nervous as each one of us pictured something in his/her mind and wanted it to be perfect, but things didn't go according to schedule and all of us were so scared that it would affect the project grade. But it wasn't really about the grades, it was about the steps we took and the effort made to plan such a good community-based learning project that can be used in the future. So the presentations class was one of the best classes i attended. I watched diverse presentation with lots of great ideas that i'd definitely use them in the future, i came to learn about my strengths and weaknesses and what action should be done to prevent such mistakes and weaknesses in the future.

Skype was probably the greatest application of technology, of course it cannot replace our face-to-face time as human interaction in my point of view is the most important learning tool, but it was a way to keep going when things were unsettled around Cairo. Actually my family and friends were amazed of how we could pull that off, they kept asking what we do on skype and what we talk about and how we could interact. My husband told me "You couldn't have dreamed of doing skype class not in a million years if it weren't for the country's current circumstances". And he's right, technology is amazing! :) :)

Above all i got to meet wonderful people and a such inspiring and relaxed doctor, which i'm sure made a difference in the lives of everyone of us.