My journey has definitely been a meaningful process that I continue to experience as we reach the end of this program. Throughout this process I have learned many things, some of these include changing my mindset about different aspects of teaching, considering how the things I do in class affect my students, and thinking about the personal factors that affect my teaching. My thoughts about how I should teach my students have steered even more to focusing on my students instead of what makes me comfortable, to consider technology and how it can benefit my students, even when I am not comfortable with a new tool. I now think about what tools I apply in my lessons will have a greater effect in my students instead of just helping me make a lesson fun. Overall, this program has made the process of thinking about my teaching more clear and purposeful. I know I still have much to learn, but I can definitely notice a difference from the time I started the program to now that I am at the end of this step in my own learning. Thinking back to different sessions and discussions, I’m reminded of the importance of taking care of my needs as a teacher. Learning, questioning and not being afraid of making mistakes are important for growth, but so is understanding what we need as teachers. I understand that I need to further my education in order to better serve my students, I need to take risks, and at the same time feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. I am at a place now where I feel motivated to continue exploring and in no way do I feel that I know all that there is to know, but I certainly want to continue to learn what I don’t yet know.
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Before starting this program I tried to incorporate technology in my classroom in different ways. I would try different tools that were appealing but was not really implementing technology in the best way I could. Many times it would not add to the content we were working on but served more as a filler to have students simply practice on the computer. Students would type their essays and add images to their writing to make it more engaging. I didn’t realize I should have been exploring other strategies like peer editing on google classroom, creating informative posters or infographics, creating a different product and allowing the transfer of information to happen in a different way. Overall, I was not paying full attention to how I was implementing technology, my knowledge of the content I was teaching, or how my students learn best. In my journey through this course I have realized that there is a good and a not so great way to use technology in the classroom. The use of technology should go along with the content and the knowledge of how my students will learn best. Through this program I have been able to better identify which tools work best for the content I am teaching and how to deliver using technology. Most of all, I have learned to take a risk and try something new with a good plan in mind. Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program There are many valuable lessons I have learned through this program. My driving question led me through a process of reflection and learning as I implemented student-created video lessons in the classroom. At the start of the program, I wondered how I could use technology to engage my students. I had some previous knowledge using technology in the classroom, but the way I implemented technology was not always effective. Many times, using technology would actually affect my teaching time and student engagement would not get any better. Being able to understand how to implement technology and going through TPACK in this program has been very valuable as I am able to better plan and use technology tools with my students. I plan to continue implementing and practicing with different tools as I continue with my journey. I feel as if I have already shared this before but my Capstone project will allow me to share a way that we can incorporate technology and 21st Century skills in the classroom. It will allow me to communicate my findings with teachers that may have the same inquiry as I did. With my project and findings, I want to be able to motivate someone to look more into the research I explored, and hopefully utilize it in their own classroom. I have already started to share my learning with colleagues and principal, and plan on sharing with other teachers that are interested in pursuing their own inquiries. I hope that as I continue to use this is in my classroom, I will be able to learn and share more with new teachers as I have learned from my peers. Hopefully, I will be able to expand from this capstone to other areas in technology. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2018
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