As time went on and I learned more however, I realize that it wasn’t about using it ALL every day. It is about knowing what is all out there and having a repertoire of knowledge to use for different situations and finding what works best for MY classroom and students! So I get it now.
I believe I will start off with some things I did not
like about this class. The first thing I
had a hard time with was working in groups.
The only reason I didn’t like it was because I felt I tended to
put more effort in than most of my group (although not all of them). I did learn however that may not necessarily be
true. I do have high expectations of
myself and so I tend to require that in others, which isn’t always good since
others may work different than I do. I
am the TOTAL opposite of a procrastinator, while others may work better under
pressure. I like to start right away and
get things done early; while some are comfortable waiting and as long as they
get it done on time they are good. The
finished products turned out well so this showed me that it doesn’t have to be
done a certain way or in a certain time frame to be good work and also that I
can use some “loosening up” when it comes to that. I did feel that one group project was enough
for this particular class. I thought the
Wiki Page assignment could have been done separately since a lot of it was done
alone anyway. For me, it was stressful
to wait on others for such a little amount that was “group” related.
I also did not like the amount of work, which may sound lazy, but in truth I am FAR from
lazy (I was working, taking 3 classes, taking care of my kids & their ball
games/activities and my home) and love to read and learn, but I did feel this
was a large amount of work and a lot more than in any other class I have taken
so far. I am not sure if that is a fair critique
or if the course could do with a little less work, it is just my opinion. With that being said, I do feel that I am
MORE than prepared to use technology as a tool in educating my students in the
classroom, and that my students and I will benefit greatly from what I have
been able to accomplish in this class (and there is also a sense of pride with
how much I have done and was capable of).
Just in creating my own “Teacher Website” digital portfolio to showcase
what I have learned in this class was very beneficial and even got me pretty excited
about creating a real one when I am actually a teacher. Seeing my work on a website like that let me
see in ‘black & white’ just how much I was able to do this semester.
I did really enjoy a few things in this class! The Tech Tools in each chapter in our
textbook (Maloy, Verock-‐O'Loughlin, Edwards & Woolf. 2013) were extremely helpful and showed me so many things to make things
easier in teaching, grading and my own continuing education. I also enjoyed looking at websites or
material and critiquing them to see if I would like to use them as a teacher or
if I thought students would enjoy them and learn from them. I have often just skimmed though a page and
decided it wasn’t useful. Actually taking
the time to really evaluate them from not only my view but from a possible
students’ view was one of the main lessons I learned in this class. Learning how to evaluate information properly
and taking the time to really see what they offered was especially
enlightening.
The discussion post in this class I actually liked a
lot. I got to research and post my opinion
and findings on various issues. My
favorite was the Legal an Ethical Issues Discussion. I am a “Black & White”, wrong/right kind
of person so I do tend to live my life based on what is considered to me to be
moral and base my beliefs based on basic human compassion. It was
interesting to see that so many people chose the same topic of Cyberbullying as
well. This showed me that it is a major
issue that has hit home with a lot of people.
I am glad to have been a part of that discussion and to tell my own
story and to provide others with information and tolls like Stopbulling.gov
that gives tips on how to stop bullying.
I hope it helped others as well.
The last thing I will talk about is all that I
learned about technology and assistive tools to help teach diverse/special
needs and English Language Learners.
Teaching these students has honestly given me more anxiety than any
other aspect of teaching. I live in
Southwest Florida, so ELL students for example are a way of life. I was not afraid to TEACH these
students. I was afraid of FAILING them
as a good attentive teacher! The
strategies and tools I learned in this class (one of my favorites was Brainpopesl.com) helped
ease some of my anxiety and showed me that there are so many tools out there to
help these students and help ME help them.
I also found information about assistive tools for everything from
Autism (Stokes, 2013) to severe allergies in my research and the research of
others in the class for assignments. I
wasn’t aware there were so many helpful tools available for these students and
their teachers.
Now that I have neared the completion of this
course, I can say with certainty that I feel capable of tackling the task of incorporating
a variety of technology, assistive learning tools and educational strategies
into my lessons, and use the skills taught through our textbook, technology based
assignments and the material & feedback given by Professor Coleman to enhance
my teaching style. I believe it will
give me the ability to give my students all the effort I can put into their education
and my own. That IS and should be our
goal in this and future classes. To that
end, this course did just that.
REFERENCES
BrainPOP
© 1999–2014. BrainPop ESL Tour [Video]. Retrieved from the Web.
Hogan, Chrystal. April 2014. ‘Seriously??’
[photograph].
Maloy,R.W., Verock-‐O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., &
Woolf, B. P. (2013). Transforming learning with new technologies. 2nd
Edition. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Stokes,
Susan. Assistive Technology for Children with Autism. Special Education Services.
Web. 13. Feb. 2014. Retrieved from Web.
Stopbulling.gov.
Website managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Retrieved from Web.
YouTube. “Cyber
Bullying Virus”. Daniel Fraser. March. 2013. Retrieved from Web.
YouTube. “The
legend of Pig and Chicken, and effective group work”. Maryna Badenhorst. Nov.
2008. Retrieved from Web.