The current course that I am taking for my master’s degree has developed technology skills that I never knew existed and I thought I would never participate in. First, I have never been exposed to a wiki or a podcast. I now know what they are and how to create them. I might find myself using these technology skills with my own students in the future. Second, I have never been a fan of blogger yet I had never given it a try. This course forced me to create my own blog and comment on others. I really enjoyed following others first grade teacher blogs and getting amazing ideas on how to incorporate more technology into their classrooms. I also found teachers that use the same language arts program as us and was able to get more ideas on that. I am not sure that I will continue my own blog, maybe I will, but I believe that students will enjoy making their own for other classmates to comment on.
I have deepened my knowledge of the teaching and learning process by taking the time to see my students likes and dislikes. I am finding better ways of keeping my students engaged by incorporating more technology into my lessons. I have even begun using my Ipad for my low students to increase their motivation to learn.
This class has helped me to become more learner-centered by taking the time to listen to their interests when creating the podcast. I was surprised that so many of my students are using technology as often as they say. Due to their technological interests being so high, I will be adapting more technology into my daily lessons to help keep hem engaged.
I am convinced that student achievement will dramatically increase with the use of more technology. I will hopefully continue to expand my knowledge in integrating technology into the classroom as I continue with my master’s degree. I am excited to learn more technology skills throughout my courses and try them with my students. I would assume that my students will be excited to learn the new ways as I play around with them. Flexibility is a life skill that my students will become very familiar with!
I am setting 2 long term goals that will help me to transform my classroom environment in order to overcome obstacles. One, I will begin to join my grade level in planning our weekly lessons. This will help decrease the amount of prep that I have as well as combining our thoughts on how to engage all learners. Two, I will create a computer center into our rotations. By doing this, all students will have the opportunity to use technology on a daily basis. I hope to accomplish these goals in less than a 2 year period.
When looking back to my checklist from the first week of this course, I notice that there are changes. A few areas went from “rarely” to “sometimes”. I am hoping that with more practice and exposure, many more of the categories will become “often”.
