“Growth of My Classroom”
When choosing my master’s program I was perplexed. Do I go into Educational Leadership even though I don’t want to become a principal at this point in my career? Do I go into Social Studies education and build on what I have done and hope that they can teach me something that 13 years of experience hasn’t. Or do I go into Educational Technology and learn new technologies that can enhance my classroom. Of course the decision wasn’t that easy, I was sure if the technology would actually be applied to my class or if it would learn new technologies instead of learning about ones that I already know. But after this semester it is easy to say that I made the right decision. I have vastly expanded on my knowledge of educational technology and can unequivocally state that I have become a better teacher because of this class.
First I have learned great methods for my students to collaborate with other students. The tools that I have used and started to have a lot of success with in my class are wikispaces.com and google docs. With both of these documents I have really enhanced the projects in my class mainly due to the access students now have to each other and their work. I have found that students are able to get the work done at a faster pace and the best part is they don’t even have to leave their home. The best part for myself is not only are the students able to communicate and work together, but it allows me to provide constant feedback on their work and I can give them instant feedback on how to improve their assignment.
Other resources I have also fallen in love with are tools like jing or diigo. First with Jing, which allows you to make screencasts from your computer, I have already used multiple times since learning about it. The ability to visually show them on your screen how to complete a task while giving them voice instructions as well. I have used this task to give my students snow day assignments and to give my mother computer assistance. The other resource would be diigo, which gives you the ability to bookmark, highlight and notate various articles. This resource has been great for my ability to give students articles and highlight the main point and give them notations to help understand or relate it to them. This source has already been invaluable to my classroom and helping bring in the knowledge to my students.
The ability to now collaborate with my students, find articles to relate to my students and give them instructions visually and orally on video, has allow me to enhance my classroom two fold. I used to think I used a lot of technology in my classroom, but after this course I have truly enhance my technology use and classroom instruction.
When choosing my master’s program I was perplexed. Do I go into Educational Leadership even though I don’t want to become a principal at this point in my career? Do I go into Social Studies education and build on what I have done and hope that they can teach me something that 13 years of experience hasn’t. Or do I go into Educational Technology and learn new technologies that can enhance my classroom. Of course the decision wasn’t that easy, I was sure if the technology would actually be applied to my class or if it would learn new technologies instead of learning about ones that I already know. But after this semester it is easy to say that I made the right decision. I have vastly expanded on my knowledge of educational technology and can unequivocally state that I have become a better teacher because of this class.
First I have learned great methods for my students to collaborate with other students. The tools that I have used and started to have a lot of success with in my class are wikispaces.com and google docs. With both of these documents I have really enhanced the projects in my class mainly due to the access students now have to each other and their work. I have found that students are able to get the work done at a faster pace and the best part is they don’t even have to leave their home. The best part for myself is not only are the students able to communicate and work together, but it allows me to provide constant feedback on their work and I can give them instant feedback on how to improve their assignment.
Other resources I have also fallen in love with are tools like jing or diigo. First with Jing, which allows you to make screencasts from your computer, I have already used multiple times since learning about it. The ability to visually show them on your screen how to complete a task while giving them voice instructions as well. I have used this task to give my students snow day assignments and to give my mother computer assistance. The other resource would be diigo, which gives you the ability to bookmark, highlight and notate various articles. This resource has been great for my ability to give students articles and highlight the main point and give them notations to help understand or relate it to them. This source has already been invaluable to my classroom and helping bring in the knowledge to my students.
The ability to now collaborate with my students, find articles to relate to my students and give them instructions visually and orally on video, has allow me to enhance my classroom two fold. I used to think I used a lot of technology in my classroom, but after this course I have truly enhance my technology use and classroom instruction.