End of Semester Reflection

What I learned:

This semester's technology class gave me so much insight into the classrooms of today, and the ways in which teachers should teach. I used to think that technology was just for classrooms of the future. I never thought that we would actually be using the SMART Boards and DocuCams for our teaching. It just seemed somewhat ridiculous and out of reach. This technology class taught me mostly to open my eyes to the many opportunities that technology has to offer for student learning. My attitude adjusted from seeing technology as a hinderance in the classroom to technology being used as a tool to better learning. This class mainly got me familiar with how to research resources of technology, especially the ones that can be free. Technology in the classroom is much like a doctor in the hospital. The doctor cannot memorize every single disease known to man, but what the doctor can do is know how to research symptoms to find the resources that he is looking for. This is how I feel about technology now. I do not need to know every technology website for the classroom that is on the web, nor can I know everything that is out there on the web. What I can do is utilize my resources to find what I am looking for to enhance my teaching in the classroom. What a great and healthy way to engage students in classroom learning and to expand their thinking!

 

NETS (National Educational Technology Standards)

Below is one of the NETS for teachers that I chose to focus on this semester and how I accomplished that.

• Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments: Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS-S teachers.
• Response: This semester I designed and developed assessments on the SMART Board to provide both formative and summative assessments for myself and my students. I found that I love the SMART Response quizzes and tests because they give immediate results of the scores. It provides a list of the scores of each student, as well as a whole class average. The features of SMART Response seem endless, and it was a great way to incorporate a contemporary tool to maximize content learning through technology. Students then do not have to sit with a pencil and paper every single time a test comes along. Through the use of technology in assessments, I can develop and strengthen the attitudes of my students, thus strengthening the goals of the NETS. I also found several other ways to assess student work in creative and exciting ways. There are many different ways for students to upload assignments onto a class blog or class website for the teacher to assess. I played around with this idea in my semester project and had students upload a video, as well as the story book that they created online to my class blog. What a fun way to have students turn in assignments, and what a great way for me as a teacher to assess homework using several different strategies to incorporate all different learning styles!