Throughout the MITTEN Project, I have especially enjoyed meeting with other teaching professionals throughout the K-16 levels-- to learn from each other, compare notes, and share good ideas.  I feel that this interaction is one of the major benefits coming out of MITTEN, and I hope that it will continue in the future.

The Discussion Board activity that I implemented this semester as one of my MITTEN projects proved to be an effective way for student teachers to share information about various approaches to grading that they are currently seeing and using.  It has allowed them to share some of the successes and frustrations involved in the student evaluation process.  It made them aware of some different approaches and considerations regarding grading that they'd never thought about before.  And it reinforced the notion that students should be active learners--earning their own grades, rather than having the teacher give them a grade.  Minor problems in implementing this discussion board activity involved getting all student teachers registered for the VLT since we meet so infrequently on campus, and the timing of the discussion board assignment.  Quarter grades in most secondary schools are done at exactly the same time that student teachers are in their busiest and most exhausting part of the semester, so an extra seminar assignment at this time was a burden.  The activity would be more productive if timed differently.  I think this can be worked out for next semester and look forward to using this again.            

Receiving each student teacher's initial lesson plans proved to be a very effective way to monitor their beginning week of planning and implementing their own daily lessons.  I was able to work with them, when needed, on strong objectives, clear procedures, and the need for closure--right from Day 1.  It is still very important for supervisors to be able to have paper lesson plans in the binder format in order to see the weekly progression in plans and the various supplementary materials, overheads, etc., that accompany the plans.  But the e-mailed plans early in the semester definitely improved the supervising process.  For myself, I will be able to provide my future students with much more effective feedback, as my editing skills (textboxes, autoshapes, use of colors, etc.) have improved considerably this semester.

My resource lists for favorite educational websites and effective classroom activities integrating technology are taking shape nicely.  Student teachers and cooperating teachers--in and out of MITTEN--have been contributing to both lists and I will continue to disseminate the results to as many teachers as possible--both electronically and on paper.  The more seeds we plant for better teaching/learning, the more flowers will grow.  

Research into educational software led me to a very surprising conclusion.  While there is an enormous amount of commercially published software available in the K-12 arena, teachers are more interested in "Webware," (websites that provide resource information and learning activities for students).   Cooperating teachers and student teachers in the Math, Language Arts/English, and Social Studies NLC's were nearly unanimous in their strong preference for website-based classroom activities rather than purchased software.  They felt that there are better interactive, higher level thinking activities available on websites than in the commercial software.  They also cited the expense of software, its quick obsolescense, and compatibility problems between computers at school and in their students' homes.   For my future MITTEN projects, I'll take their recommendation and concentrate my efforts on web-based resources.