From+My+Heart

I am reaching the conclusion of this technologies class and my wiki assignment. As I reflect back on this journey, it has been an incredible experience. I have learned so much about internet use and new ways of applying this knowledge to my future classroom it is unbelievable. If you have taken the time to fully explore my wiki you will know that I am a post-back student and that I had fulfilled my technology requirement for my teaching certificate in prior years, so I was not required to retake this course, it was just recommended. I decided that I really wanted to be up-to-speed with what is going on in the classroom in terms of all the different technological advances, so here I am...reflecting on this course. I am so happy I followed the recommendation and took this class. I will explain and expand on the valuable technology skills I have learned and will be taking with me into my teaching career through the following write-up.

Let me start by saying that technology has not been something I have used very extensively and/or have explored very much, so I had ample room to grow in this area. I have not had much reason to do more than search on the internet up to this point, so the tasks that were on the syllabus were intriguing and somewhat nerve racking. I wasn't sure if I would understand how to do the tasks and it seemed impossible to do this all online with no classroom interaction since I was new to online learning, as well. Now that I have completed the assignments week by week, I have discovered that I am not as technologically challenged as I once thought and that learning online can be very valuable. I had just never had the training or cause to advance in this area and learning online helped me to be more independent when I would run into a difficult situation. I would rethink the problem and trace my steps to see where I missed the direction that would led me to the answer, or I would find I could trouble shoot my own problems and learn even more from that experience. If after all of those tries I was still confused, I could get in contact with the instructor and get back on track. As an end result of this class, I find technology almost addicting and I want to continue to explore and learn more about the 21st century learning tools available to incorporate in the classroom. As a teacher, I feel this has changed my teaching style and I have been transformed into an educator who will celebrate technology in the classroom and embrace these skills in a way I never thought would be possible.

I am excited that I will be student teaching immediately following the conclusion of this course, so I can implement these new skills into my teaching and get practical hands on experience using them. I believe the lessons that can be created or adapted by using these web 2.0 tools will enhance the student's learning, motivation and excitement about being an active learner in the classroom. One of the most engaging activities will be to use Blabberize. I predict that this particular tool will be used many times throughout the school year and the students will be looking for ways to Blabberize their classroom projects. I also see myself using the Jeopardy game as a fun and engaging way to review any unit of study. Finally, I will be using a classroom wiki when I have my own classroom as a great way for parents and students to peek into our classroom and be able to get a feel of what we are currently involved in studying and as a resource for all of the important details of how our classroom operates. This way, if hard copies of classroom expectations are lost, these items can be easily looked up on our wiki website. While this type of assignment takes months to get up and running, I find it will be one of the most important tools to begin my teaching career and I fully plan to implement these new skills from day one in my future classroom. The only thing I would change on my wiki in the future would be to spend more time creating the lesson plans and adding other web 2.0 tools to the lessons, as there are so many useful tools I didn't get a chance to utilize. Developing the wiki was the focus up to this point and now I intend to continue adding other units of instruction and continue to create more powerful lessons within those units using more technology tools.

I don't think I have ever been more proud of a final project that I have created all by myself than this one. I have done some presentations with fellow students for classes that I was happy to be part of, but they were not all work I had done on my own. This process has been a confidence builder, a huge learning endeavor, a trip down memory lane while looking back at what fostered the desire within me to be a teacher, and it opened up a whole new world of exploration right at my fingertips. If I had to pick the one aspect of this whole experience as being my favorite, I would have to say I am most proud of my photostory. I was embarrassed to do it at first, but I was pleasantly surprised at the resulting story. I felt it covered what I needed to say, and it was emotional to think back to the important teachers I have had in my life. Now I can include Dr. Stocker as one of those pivital instructors that have changed my life through education and I will be forever thankful for this technologies class and the impact it has had on my ability to explore, learn, collaborate, create and teach. I hope my teaching will be seen as the difference between standard television and high definition...much more enjoyable to experience and more interesting to deliver.