My undergrad teaching experiences covered a wide range of topics, but mostly focused on lesson design and implementation. Within lesson design, I had the opportunity to incorporate technology and was sometimes encouraged to. But I often struggled with time management of my coursework, so adding technology was not always my priority.
During my internship I was exposed to more of an enriched technology environment from my collaborating teacher. He was a technology “go to” person within our building and I found his practices inspiring. I worked with some updated technologies, such as a document camera and a classroom sound system. I used the document camera often during writer’s workshop to instantly share writing. Students were often very excited and motivated by this. I used the sound system in the classroom. I enjoyed this system and thought it made my voice well heard and helped students stay engaged.
The best experiences I have had with technology in the classroom have been in my first two years of teaching. I think is due to two reasons: resources and collaboration. I have been lucky enough to have a personal interactive white board, computers in my classroom, a sound system and access to other tools. I am also a part of the technology committee, so I have involved in technology initiatives as well. I have helped guide teachers with technology skills and have supported technology related efforts in the classroom, such as accelerated reader and audio books.
Reflect on this first week of classes and how it has changed any learning trajectories established in #1.
This first week of class has been a deep dive into technology education. But, I have pushed myself to embrace all the new tools and concepts and am feeling even more empowered than ever. Although I was feeling confident and aware due to my positive teaching experiences, I am realizing that I am even more empowered now. There are so many new tools I am learning to use for the classroom and to grow professionally. For example, I never realized networks such as twitter could be so resourceful when it comes to collaborating.
Create a personal growth plan for the remaining portion of the 2011 summer courses.
I want to continue developing my classroom blog and/or a classroom website. I think this could be a very useful school to home connection. I am excited to make an appealing webspace for my parents and students. Within my classroom blog I am looking to set up a good foundation of student blogging. I know I have more to learn about this and how I can expand my students to outside networks for comment sharing. I would also like to continue to be introduced to useful classroom tools.
Lay the foundation for a personal growth plan for the remaining portion of the MAET program (years 2 & 3) and the next five years of your career.
My goal for remaining portion of MAET is to develop a well rounded classroom webspace. I would also like to be exposed to additional tools such as interactive whiteboard software, ipads, etc. I am also hoping that I develop an even stronger online social network so that I can continue to benefit from collaboration.
In the next five years I hope I will be a very technology friendly teacher that incorporates technology opportunities on a daily basis. Or, I hope to be a technology coordinator at a school. What I imagine my students doing is having opportunities to incorporate blogging into everyday activities. For example, I want my students to be able to blog within literature circles. This allows them a change of pace from the worksheets and puts the worksheets questions into a blog format. This not only allows comment opportunities between the students, but also allows the teacher to later see the student discussion about the books each groups are reading. I also envision my students benefiting from tools such as online audio books. Traditional Audio books have helped my students a great deal and I am excited to explore the online audio book programs. I also want my students become more literate in their smart board skills. This would be useful so that they can design and display presentations of their own. I plan to keep myself up to date in technology by continuing to be an active member of my school’s technology committee. I also hope to take on a leadership role within the committee.
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