ETEC 674 - Session 1 AKA YES!!!! We get to BLOG again!

Hello out there in TV... er Internet Land! My name is Michelle Romanek-Beyronneau and this is my 10th year of teaching math at the high school level. I taught my first seven years in San Bernardino at Arroyo Valley High School and have been teaching at Desert Hot Springs High School in Desert Hot Springs (we're part of Palm Springs Unified School District), CA for the past three. Over those school years, I have had the opportunity to teach math courses from the Algebra 1 as a 2 year course level to Algebra 2 Honors and AP Statistics.

This is my third quarter in the program at CSUSB as a student and I have to say it has more than surpassed my expectations thus far. The structure and material of the courses, the interaction with other students and the teacher have been fabulous; my experiences have already helped me grow as a teacher. I experimented with my own bit of online learning for my students midway through this first semester and I, and my students, quite enjoyed the process. I look forward to garnering the knowledge that will allow me to utilize online learning in my practice as an educator more often and more fully. Also, I really enjoyed the blogging aspect of the course that I took last quarter with Dr. Newberry and I am very excited to be blogging again this quarter.

In the masters courses that I've taken so far, I must say that my preference for interaction has been online. I earned a masters in educational administration, all courses in the face-to-face style and while I did enjoy the courses, I've found that I actually get more student to student interaction in the online courses that I've taken over the past two quarters. I am not sure if that is true of all online courses or just the structure of the courses in which I have enrolled, but I really enjoy seeing the thoughts, ideas, and reactions of my class mates to the same material as, invariably, the interpretations and understandings shared are different than mine. I always finish the week having learned more by seeing the material afresh through the eyes of my classmates. (I can see straight through your armor! Just kidding...)


Well, I consider myself comfortable using my blog, but I'm sure that the interface has untold options that I have not explored, so I certainly wouldn't call myself proficient. I worked with a team last quarter which had a teammate attend a talkshoe call with Dr. Newberry, though I did not attend myself. I, personally, have listened to the talkshoe recording and have played around some with the website to familiarize myself with how it works. I am comfortable using my computer, the Internet and the other programs on my computer to word process, etc. and that's really all I can think of for now. 


So, for now, I'm Bob Barker... I mean, Michelle Romanek reminding you to help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered!