This course is an opportunity for you to reflect on your teaching and grow as an educator
to better support your students. It has been designed to provide space and guidelines for reflection,
but don’t limit your reflection to specific activities.
At all times, work to connect the content of the course with your own experience and current
classroom or school environment. Think: How does what I’m learning reflect (or not reflect)
my experience? How can I apply or adapt what I’m learning to benefit students in my classroom, school,
or district? How does this help me reach my own professional goals?
Also work to connect what you’re learning with your own professional goals.How can
I use what I’m learning to become a better teacher?
Take sufficient time to complete the course. Don’t plan to complete a 10-hour module
in one sitting, or even a week! At each stage, you'll need ample time to reflect before you can meaningfully
tackle the next section of the course, and some activities may require significant planning. Have I
scheduled enough time to get the most from this course?
Representing yourself
In addition, remember that you are representing yourself as a professional educator, and that
other participants in the course are your colleagues in the teaching profession. By participating in this course
and interacting with other educators across North Carolina, you’re acting as a leader in your profession.
Moreover, while this is not a public space, what you write here is permanent. Other educators will have access
to the course and may see your contributions long after you’ve turned in your certificate for CEUs. Consider
the following:
Give your colleagues the benefit of your knowledge and experience. Take the time to offer
thoughtful responses to their discussion post; don’t just say “Great idea” and move on.
Be honest about challenges you face in your own teaching, while of course protecting the
privacy of students and colleagues. That’s the only way you can get the advice you need to improve your
own practice, and it’s the most effective way to advocate for your students.
Remember that it’s a big state, and other participants will have different backgrounds than
yours and work in diverse environments! Be courteous and try to think through a colleague’s
perspective before responding, and when you respond, show some humility. (“In my experience…”)
While this should go without saying, post your own work and cite your sources.
Follow academic standards of integrity, though informal references are fine in this context.
More specifically, there are things you can do to represent yourself well in this environment and help other
participants benefit from your contributions. Here are several:
Although online discussions should be collegial, nevertheless use standard (formal, academic)
English. Your colleagues can’t see you face to face to gauge your expression and
intent, and their expectations of social media interaction may be different from yours. Avoid texting abbreviations
(e.g. “lol”) that would be appropriate in social media environments. If you believe your meaning may be unclear,
though, you may use emoticons.
Use informative and understandable subject lines for your discussion posts. Often the
instructions will give you a specific format, but if not, note that these subject lines can be searched, so
take a minute to consider. What’s the quickest, clearest way to communicate what your post is about,
so colleagues can find it quickly if they’re interested (and not waste time on it if they aren’t)?
Read your contributions over carefully before posting. Is your meaning clear?
Are you being fair to other teachers, particularly the one to whom you’re responding? Are you
representing your students and colleagues fairly, and are you representing yourself as a professional?
You may even want to read your post out loud — it’s a great way to notice not only mistakes but also a
tone you didn’t realize you were using.
See also the Participation
Rubric designed for the MOOClet Effective Digital Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the K–12
Classroom.
Even in courses designed to be self-paced, we recommend that if possible, you work through it with colleagues,
either informally or formally through a PLC. Discussion will aid reflection, and you'll have the opportunity to
learn from colleagues’ insights and experience.
If you want to modify a self-paced course for use in a PLC, we suggest any or all of the following:
For activities that require journaling, trade or otherwise share your responses and use them as a
basis for discussion.
Although discussion forum postings may be required for completion of the course, you can certainly
supplement them with personal discussions. In fact, it might be most effective to have those face-to-face
conversations first, and develop your posting from them. When you try an activity or teach a lesson, you
might try to arrange to observe one another's classes.
By all means, continue to support one another after you've completed the course, as you implement
what you’ve learned in your classrooms!
If you are taking this course alone, take extra time to read and consider the prior postings in the discussion
forums, and respond to any where you can make a constructive contribution. Although direct conversations will be
rare, you'll be contributing to the body of knowledge available to your colleagues across the state who take this
course after you.
Note that the advice given here won’t just help you succeed in the course you’re taking; it
addresses various North Carolina educator standards. How can you use your work in the course to analyze your
impact on students and to link your professional growth to your personal goals and your school’s needs?
How can you use your interactions in this course to lead in your profession, advocate for schools and students,
and demonstrate high ethical standards?
To see the specific standards to which this course is aligned, see the Alignment to Standards
page.