John, my Disclaimer… As you know I was in ETEC565 for a few weeks a couple of terms ago.  I did a flight plan then.  This flight plan has elements that are the same and some that are new.

Ryan

Who am I?

I guess I should start with the personal stuff because that is who I am.

My name is Ryan Edgar and I am 35 years old.  This summer I will be married for 10 years and have two beautiful girls – ages 4 and 3 (in a couple of weeks).  Thankfully my girls look like my wife and not like me – so they still have a chance!  My family is the most important thing in my life and most, if not all, of what I do is for them.

I am in my seventh year of teaching and all of them have been at Argyle Secondary in North Vancouver, BC.  I was one of the lucky ones that got a job straight out of University and therefore never had to TOC.  Although I am a Technology Education teacher (A.K.A shop teacher to the masses) I have taught other courses such as Math, Information Technology.  This year has been extremely interesting as half of my teaching load is taken up with Apprenticeship and Work Experience.  Working with these students has been both very rewarding and frustrating.  Besides teaching at Argyle I also coach the school’s wrestling team.

Why MET?

I chose the MET program for a number of reasons.  Firstly, how the program is delivered.  Being able to do course work from home on my schedule is extremely helpful.  Although finding the time is a bit challenging, stealing moments of production here and there works much better for me.  Secondly, I chose this program because of its focus on technology.  I see this as being extremely important to my profession.  The students are all about technology.  Being able to implement it into lessons is paramount for me.  I know this program (and it appears this course specifically) will do wonders for the quality of my lessons and activities.  And finally, I chose this program because it is one of the fastest ways for me to achieve the ultimate goal of making more money.  As I previously stated, family is the most important thing in my life.  Being able to provide for them (ie: more money) is a huge motivating factor.  If I finish 5 course in the 2010 calendar year I get that magic PB +15 pay raise – here’s to hoping I can balance it all!

My goals & what I want to learn?

Essentially, my goal for this course is to find new and creative ways to engage and improve my students’ learning.  Only after a few days of recreating my first blog I can already see how this could work for me at school.

I am not sure what exactly I want to learn about LMS, synchronous communication, assessment, etc.  In the past I have found that most of the time I go into things blind and their merits and values suddenly appear.  For instance the blog – I am already designing ways I can incorporate a blog/web site into my daily lessons; a new way to connect with students, parents and colleagues.

Ryan