Week 8 Reflection, Reflection, Reflection

photo courtesy of learninginhand.com
As I look back on the last eight weeks of this class, I feel like I can totally rearrange the way I teach in my classroom. Before this class, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on how to use technology in the classroom and what kind of resources I had available to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much was out there that I didn't know about. This class allowed me to explore different resources I had never heard of, resources I had heard of but didn't have time to explore, and old resources that had been reborn.

 Technology is incredibly important in a 21st Century Classroom. Students in classrooms today have grown up with technology as a 6th sense. Traditional classroom strategies have become outdated and unnecessary. I took this class because I felt that I could learn something about how to use technology in my classroom differently. I had some resources that I used in the classroom that were effective, but the internet is so big and there was so much more I didn't know. I have always been open to technology, but I am a busy teacher and it is often much easier to go with what I have always done. I know that isn't the best thing to say as a teacher, but it is realistic. Teachers are busy and we often get so wrapped up in what we have already planned for that we avoid anything that may force us to do some planning.
Check out this website for a list of some really awesome Web Tools 2.0.

I found out about one of the coolest web resources that I have ever seen. I did my webtool on a website called Nearpod. This website is one of the most interactive resources I have ever seen. If you do not know what I am talking about, check out my previous weeks' blog about it. Without this class, I never would've taken the time to explore this awesome resource. The other topic that really stood out to me during this course was the exploration of whether I was a visitor vs. resident on the web. I am a 90's kid. I always thought that I was so tech savvy. I was much better at technology than my parents and former teachers were. However, after doing that activity I found out that I wasn't as much of a resident online. At this time, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, but I think that I could become more of a resident for professional purposes.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflecting on Moving Forward

Image
As I reflect back on the last two years of my school at Dominican University, it has always been in the back of my head whether or not I will stick with this after all of the classes are done. I am at the end of this path and integrating social media into my classroom has never sounded more necessary. I have found so many awesome resources that could possibly change the way that students learn. Not only that, but the way that I communicate information with parents and community members could be completely different. I had recently learned about the Remind App to communicate with parents. This changed the way I communicated with parents, but through this class I found even more social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Edmodo that would be beneficial as well. Moving forward, I'd like to look into transforming some of my current classroom interventions into technology based interventions. I'd also like to streamline some of communication with families and community member...
Read more