Final Reflection

Looking back on this course I have come to learn many things about myself, my students, and the learning style that I use. I started this class with a personal learning theory of constructionism and constuctivist. I like my students to be moving and interacting (not chit chatting about after-school items, but school related). When they are moving they are learning from each other, and that is the best style of learning. I like that they are 'building' their mental file cabinets and adding new materials. Taking this course has deepened my understanding of how my learning style impacts my teaching style. Before it was easy to say do this or do that, but now when I create a lesson, I find myself looking more at why are we going to do and how will this impact my students with a deeper understanding. We all want that higher thinking level engaged.

Technology intergration is in use almost all the time in my room. My students are exposed to desktop's, Smartboards, SmartTables, Netbooks, and projectors. If we can get them on the computer for a lesson, we do. My district is very good about that and really wants the students to be exposed as much as possible. I look forward to the day that we have access to Ipads and the students are allowed to use their cell phones in class (to text in answers). The two pieces of technology tools that I will be using more is Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. I really want to dive deeper into Microsoft Word, especially with all the resources that the course text has to offer with the program. Dr. Orey talks a lot about the PowerPoint as being a great building lesson for students. My students have created these in the past, but now I want them to step up the lessons a notch, and incorporate so much more into the lesson. Maybe I will even have them create the 6th grade graduation slides for June.

Two long term goals that I have is to branch out and begin to really explore the computers more with my younger students. For example, Kindergarten and First grade. These students are great at playing games, but I want them to be whiz kids with a word document or a spreadsheet. This will be a time builder as the attention span in this age group is not very long. My second goal is to offer an after-school program for students that would like to learn more the computers or other technology that we have here at school. To get this started I think I will send out a small survey asking about 5 questions to see what they want to learn. As students get older they don't always want to ask questions for fear of peer teasing. This would also give me a chance to work in smaller groups and be able show them more.

I am very appreciative of everything that I have learned in this course. Many loose strings have been tied together, providing me with a clearer picture of the direction that I need to head in. My classmates were great with their advice and ideas, learning from your peers, the file continues to grow.