Integrating Technology in the Classroom Reflection

At the beginning of the course when I took the self assessment I realized that I rarely integrated the 21st century skills into my classroom. Through this course I realized that how important it is to incorporate the 21st century skills that the students that I am teaching today will need when they get into the real world. Even though, “Schools are struggling to keep pace with the astonishing rate of change in students’ lives outside of school. Students will spend their adult lives in a multitasking, multifaceted, technology-driven, diverse, vibrant world-and they must arrive equipped to do so” (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, n.d.). I believe that, that quote speaks volumes for the expectations that are set on educators and I see that I have a lot to learn as an educator. Through this class my eyes have been opened to the realization that I need to be able to implement the skills that are needed in the 21st century so that my students will be successful. Personally I had never even thought about creating a blog, wiki, or podcast for my students to hear, but through this course I have gained knowledge that will help me to implement more technology into my class.

My perspective on teacher-centered instruction has changed a little since the beginning of the course. I believe that for the most part that my teaching style was more learning centered then teacher centered. If you walked into my classroom at any time the kids might be working, but there will be music going and it will not be quiet. Students work in pairs, in small groups, or alone depending on what we are learning. If the lesson calls for collaboration amongst the students then we have discussions to formulate answers. The one thing that the students do not have as much choice in is the topics that are covered. I teach math and there are certain state standards that I have to cover throughout the year and there are certain topics that are more important than others. So the students are not able to have a choice of the topics that are covered. One thing that I do when I am teaching though is I have the students at times come up and teach parts of the lessons. I call it my genius for a day and I pick a person about once a week to be my “genius”. The kids love to play the teacher and be the genius for the day.

One way that I can continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology to increase my students’ achievement is to finish the masters program that I am in now. I know that there is a lot of information out there and if I were not in this program then I am not sure how much I would actually look into them. I will also expand my knowledge by becoming more comfortable with the technologies that are out there like blog, wiki’s, and podcasts. How can I expect to implement those technologies if I am not comfortable using them? I think that through the implementation of technology that the students will be more interested in the lessons that I am teaching and that will keep their interests peaked, and I hope that will help with their overall understanding of math.

Two long term goals I would like to set for transforming my classroom environment and overcoming obstacles in order to achieve them are make a blog for my classes to use and hopefully be able to podcast the lessons that I teach so that the students can hear what they may have missed for the day. Through the blog I think that it will be easy for the parents to keep up on what is going on in the class, and with the podcasts the parents will be able to hear what is taught during the day. Some parents have been out of school for years and many of the concepts that I am teaching are like a foreign language. Through my SMART board I can record my lessons and take the students through step by step instructions on how to do different concepts. Posting those to the blog will allow for the parents to learn also so that they will be able to help their students at home. I hope that I will be able to implement this into my class in the next couple of years. One obstacle that I might face is being able to gain access at my school and be able to keep the blog up and running. I would hope that since Ohio, where I teach, is looking to support the practices of 21st century skills that my district will back what I am trying to do.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf