Reflecting on things learned

In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills as a professional teacher?

            I have always thought that I was a person who was pretty fluent with technology.  This is largely due to the fact that I was always able to find a means to troubleshoot any problems that I have had with any piece of technology whether it be my computer, TV/cable, or cell phone.  Whether it was playing with settings or wire connections myself, or calling customer service to have them walk me though a troubleshooting process, I always felt competent in finding a solution to any technology problem in a timely fashion.  As a teacher, I feel that it is necessary to have these skills, simply because most teachers now have some form of technology that they use and rely on, on a daily basis.  However, as a professional teacher these skills only help me, not my students, and there is a whole lot more that I can offer my students though technology than I have ever thought was possible.  I have always known that computers are excellent resources for people, and I have always been an advocate of saying “just Google it”, when a stumping question came up.  Through the progression of this class I have been able to see that there is so much more to the Internet than search engines, like podcasts, blogs, Wikis, and video conferencing.  As I mentioned before, I feel that I am a very competent and capable technology user, however I feel that I am lacking in the creativity area when it comes to technology.  I have always thought of technology as a convenient tool, which I is how I would expect my students to look at it.  This course has changed my point of view on technology, and now I am starting to look at it as a professional teacher, which has me trying to find creative and useful ways to implement it into my teaching.

In what ways have you deepened your knowledge of the teaching and learning process?

            Moreover, I have always considered myself to be more old-fashioned when it comes to education.  As a student, most of my classes involved some sort of lecture, in which I would record notes on, quizzes, and unit tests.  This is how my parents and siblings learned, and I grew up expecting this because it was how it had always been done.  I like this because I am the type of person who does not like a lot of surprises or constant change, and this was a steady and safe model.  Now that I am a teacher, I am on the other side of things, and I now have to look at educating all different kinds of learners, not just the ones that learn the same way that I did.  This has been one of the most challenging things that I have faced as a teacher, because I am constantly thinking to myself, “I figured it out this way, why can’t they?”  I personally believe that our education system has become soft in some ways, and that student accountability is becoming more and more rare in schools in my area.  On the other hand, I do believe that students’ mindsets have changed since I have been in school.  Students today need more stimulation than they used to, partially because so many kids are watching TV and playing video games.  Video games and television programs are constantly changing and keeping your attention.  With video games, the user is in control, and failed attempts can be retried with the push of a button.  With television, or to be more current, Internet media (YouTube, podcasts, etc.), you can skip the fine print and get right to the main point.  Today’s students have a lot more options to sift through all of the small talk, and get to the major point that somebody is trying to make, by scrolling to the bottom of a page or fast forwarding.  The need to wait and endure hours of lecturing is becoming obsolete, and students can learn a weeks worth in just an hour at a time that is convenient for them. 

In what ways have you changed your perspective from being teacher-centered to learner-centered?

            Moving on, the fact that students have the ability to learn so much on their own, and that the ability to work in a group is such a desired trait to most professions today, has really made me question my desire to teach students the way that I was taught.  My students will tell you, just as they have told me, that they would rather not take notes or have a lecture during class.  As much as I try to admire this thought, I still have to make sure that my students are getting the information they need in order to be proficient in my subject.  I have had many instances where I totally let go of the controls and let my students learn from each other.  I have my students seated in groups, so it is very easy for me to do group activities, and I think it is very valuable for them to see how other students work and also to learn to work with people they might not normally work with.  I know that my future students will benefit more if I talk less, because I am not their only resource. 

In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement?

            In order to stay current with a constantly changing field of technology, I need to continue to be a student.  There are new ideas and technologies that are constantly being produced, and the more I try new things, the more I will be able to find what works best.  The concept that I feel is most important to my students’ future, however, is developing 21^st-century skills.  So in order to expand on my teaching, I would like to make sure that I try and implement more opportunities for my students to learn these 21^st-century skills. 

Set two long-term goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment by which you may have to overcome institutional or systemic obstacles in order to achieve them. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?

            Continuing, there are two long-term goals that I would like to set for myself that are inspired by what I have learned through out this course.  The first goal that I would like to set is to have more 21^st-century skills experiences in my classroom.  By this I mean having more hands on problem solving situation, and having time to let students think critically and be creative in order to problem solve.  My idea behind this is that I want my students to become more independent and creative thinkers, and that they do not always have to do everything the exact way I showed them because there is usually multiple way to arrive at a solution to any given problem.  Part of what stands in the way of this goal is the fact that my school is on a trimester schedule, and the other part that is blocking this goal is the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  With the trimester schedule I am very pressed for time, and when you throw the CCSS into the mix, there is not much time for anything else.  The teachers in our building have sat down many times and tried to find ways to fit all of the CCSS into our curriculum, but there is simply not enough time and some things must be cut.  As a result, it is difficult for me to find time to do something other than teacher to the CCSS, and omit lessons that include 21^st-century skills.  In order to overcome this hurdle, I plan to try and teach lesson aligned with the CCSS with 21^st-century skill driven activities. 

            My second goal is to provide more opportunities for students to use technology in my classroom, rather than just include more technology in my classroom.  I am a teacher who is lucky enough to have a document camera, overhead projector, and interactive whiteboard in my classroom.  These are great things for me to have as a teacher, because they save me a lot of time and make my life a lot easier when I need to present things to the class.  However, as far as technology usage in the classroom goes, this is about as far as I take it with my students.  A lot of this issue has to do with the fact that there is not enough time in a trimester schedule to take my students down to the computer lab and still teach all the curriculum I need to teach.  However, I know this is no excuse, and I need to try and make more time to let my students explore problems on their own with the help of technology.  In order to achieve this goal, I plan to utilize the many computer labs my school has to offer, as often as possible.  My goal is to get away from a textbook driven teaching model, where I do most of the talking.  By getting away from the textbook and letting my students have more freedom, I am hoping to keep my students more stimulated and eager to learn because they will be able to do it at their own pace and have the satisfaction of learning it on their own rather than constantly hearing it from me.

Refer to your checklist from Week 1. Have any of your answers changed after completing this course?

            Finally, there are not many changes that have occurred over the course of this class since week 1.  I have always been a big believer in collaborative work environments, and continue to present collaborative work opportunities to my students.  I also still feel that I need to implement more technology in to my teacher, and not just simply using technology to teach.  Also, the biggest insight that I have gained from this course has been that I need to implement more 21^st-century learning experiences in my classroom.  This includes more student-driven learning, presenting or work, collaborating both inside and outside the classroom, and providing more real world examples and experiences.