Final Reflection

Wow, I cannot even believe that it was 20 months ago that I was starting on this journey through this master’s program. While this program is done I can see myself continuing to log onto the internet to see what new things are out there. I am so excited to have been able to gain the knowledge that I did from this course. I think that it will help me with the rest of my teaching. I cannot say how excited I am to have been able to take these courses.

The last assignment had me thinking about what technologies are out there and how they can help my students perform at a higher level. Well I am happy to say that after doing the assignment I was able to find a site that I can use at my school and I will be meeting with a representative from the company this Thursday, April 22nd, to see what the company has to offer. I never thought that I would be so excited about technology, but I am seeing that it can help to motivate the students that I teach. I hope that this company is good and that we are able to get the technology at my school next year. I talked it over with my principal and he is going to hear what the representative has to offer on Thursday also. I have been comparing different programs that can be used with math in my class and I do not think that I would of ever done that if it had not been for this class. I never thought that I would be looking for resources to use in the building that I teach. It feels so good to be able to bring what I have learned to life. I feel that it is making my job more enjoyable to be able to find things that the students will be enthusiastic about. I was able to test out a demo with the students last week and they seemed to love the demo. Most of them were upset that they were not going to be able to use the technology.

As a whole I am so glad that I have been able to have the opportunity to take these courses. I was a little hesitant at the beginning of the program because I did not think that it had anything to do with technology. Looking back now I can see how it might not of been using a computer or the internet, but it made me think about the students that I teach as a whole and I am so excited to have been able to take those courses and gain some great knowledge.

Spotlight on Emerging Technology - Click HERE

Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology

As I look back at this course and all that I have learned I see that one size does not fit all and that because I am a specific type of learner that not all of my students learn in that same way. It also made me evaluate the way that I teach. As a teacher if I am able to identify the way that I learn and the way that all my students learn then I will be able to be a more effective teacher. This class has also showed me that I am not alone in implementing differentiated instruction in my classroom. There are things that I do in my class that I do in my class that just come naturally to me and it is differentiating the instruction to all the learners. Yet there are still areas that I can improve in. Before when I would see that education needs to be more differentiated I kind of fought against it. I did not know that there were so many resources out there on the internet or that I was doing many of the tactics in my class already. Differentiated instruction was not so clear; actually it was kind of muddy. Now that I am at the end of this class I look back at all the resources there are and all the knowledge that I have gained I am actually more comfortable with implementing more things into my class.

Adjustments that I am making in my class is providing the students with guided notes that they are able to get all the information that they need on the topic that I am teaching. I started this process halfway through this class and the students have been responding positively. The thing that I did last year at the end of the year when I knew that I was going to be having the same kids was grouped the kids in the classes that I was going to be teaching by their ability. This has helped with teaching because I knew what the ability of the students was and I was able to pair them up so that those students that were higher would be able to excel. I have seen that this has worked pretty well this year.