A chance to change!

In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills as a professional teacher?

This course has opened my eyes to some new and creative ways to use technology in the classroom. I love the idea of blogging and group wiki's for classroom use. My students are so in touch wtih technology and have the access that I feel like I would be letting them down if I did not use it more in the classroom. I have also learned more about how school districts and government agencies are pushing for more use of 21st century skills like group projects and technology usage.
In what ways have you deepened your knowledge of the teaching and learning process?

I have realized that with all of the technology at my fingertips I need to utilize it more often with my students. They know a lot about computers and such, so incoporating that in the learning environment will make the experience better for them and allow me to teach them what I know about technology. Teaching is not just standing in front of the class reading and giving notes, we need to teach them skills that they can use in the real world as well.
In what ways have you changed your perspective from being teacher-centered to learner-centered?

Learning centered or student centered should be the main focus of teachers. It is not teaching to just give them the answers when they are having a difficult time, helping them find ways to get to the answer is teaching. If they don't know what a word means, telling them the meaning is not as useful as having them use a dictionary to look it up. They need to understand where information comes from and that you (the teacher) does not know everything. Students need to take charge and be responsible for their learning. They should not get to sit back and be handed grades and information. They need to work for it!
In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement?

I can continue to expand my knowledge of the teaching profession by taking part in professional development activities as well as continuing my education. Things change rapidly over the years so it is important to stay on top of the things. Reading and researching up and coming technology can also help give teaching stratgies and ideas. The professional development that is offered to teachers can be so beneficial if people take the opportunity to take part in it. Regardless of how many years I have taught I am still willing to learn and hear what others have to share with me because you can learn from one another!
Set two long-tem goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment by which you may have to overcome institutional or systemic obstacles in order to achieve them. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?

My first long term goal is to have students answer a weekly question through a blog. I want to post a question a week and have students respond to them through their very own blog or even wiki. I want students to understand the importance of technology and how it helps us communicate. I am capable of incorporating this next year because so many of my students have access to the Internet. I will have to accomdate some students, but if I have the opportunity to try this out next school year I will. My prinicpal will have to get on board with this because some parents may not want their children creating a blog, but I think once they see how it will be used, they will all be supportive.

My second long term goal is to have students create more technological projects. I have them create PowerPoints, but Moodle is a great resource and so is our E-chalk system that we use now. I would like to utlizie our system we have now more. Students can email teachers and save assignments to their page, but none of them use it to submit projects/papers/homework. I would like to have them begin doing that as well next year. Again, no teachers at my school currently use this program for electronic submission of assignments, but we have discussed it. I hope to push for that next year so that we can start using it school wide!

Use of Technology

After speaking with students in the classroom about their use and knowledge of technology I was very impressed with the amount of kids that have access to technology. Many of my students have a cell phone and a computer with Internet access at home. I took a poll from one class and 98% had a cell phone and 90% had a computer with Internet access. Those that had a computer but did not have Internet access said they still play some sort of computer game though.

Many students also had some sort of gaming system. Whether it be an oldie but a goodie, Nintendo, they had a Wii, an X-box, Playstation or Nintedo DS. When I asked them about how often they used their technology for school purposes several said only when they had to do a research project. For example, they discuss how they had an animal project in Language Arts class where they had to learn about the habitat and life of an animal through research and then write a paper about it. Many said they had time at school to work on this so using the Internet at home was not necessary.I find it so hard to believe that so many young kids have so much access to technology.

A student in my class has their very own Ipad. It is such an expensive piece of equipment I cannot help but wonder why a parent would feel the need to buy something of that nature for an 11 year old! I remember when I had my first cell phone when I was 17 years old. Students at 17 years old now have had a cell phone since they were 6 and have had every gaming system created in the past 10 years!I think that students need to start realizing the importance of technology as well as see how lucky they are to have constant access to that. They need to appreciate that they can get on the Internet at almost any time and make a phone call to anyone they want, whenever they want for the most part.

Technology is constantly changing and having an impact on how we teach. Giving students research projects where they get to use technology will only help them in the long run. Learning to surf the web and find websites that are authentic and real is so important for them to learn. They need to see that it is not just for fun and social networking all the time! Regardless of what you teach, finding ways to incorporate the Internet and/or other technology will help students grow to realize that being able to have this kind of access is a privilege!


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