Final Course Reflection

I have really enjoyed this class. Every activity that we did in the class will help me when I begin teaching. I have learned many different techniques when using technology. I would say that my strong points are creating new things and my weaker points would be working with the assistive technology. I believe creating things is my strong point because I love making unique things. I believe students like things being different. It gives them a challenge. My weak point is the assistive technology because I am not familiar with those programs. I had difficulty maneuvering through the different programs. I will work on improving my knowledge with these programs. Assistive technologies are very important when you have a student with disabilities. The assist with the students different needs. I plan on integrating as much technology as possible into my classroom. Technology is something that students need to be familiar with these days. I will make sure that I use some sort of technology based product each day in the classroom. I hope to say up to date with technology. In the future, I plan to be very technology savvy. I want my students to be able to use the computer without any help.

Reflections on NETS-T Standard 5

http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

Standard five says that teachers need to “engage in professional growth and leadership”. It is so important for teachers to be professional. The reason for teachers to have to continuously go to workshops and meetings is for them to grow professionally. The education system is constantly changing from day to day and they need to stay up to date on what is going on.  Teachers need to be leaders in the classroom. Students watch every move that the teachers make and the teachers should do things that are easily and rightful able to be repeated. The teachers are role models for the children and they look up to them so it is so important to do the right things. The teacher should be about to reflect and keep up to date on what is going on in the profession of teaching. They should be able to emerge new incoming technologies into the classroom. Most of all, the teacher needs to be professional in everything that he or she does.  I believe that being professional is in and out of the classroom. People in the community are very aware that a person is a teacher in the school system and all eyes are on them. People know that teachers have to be role models for the students and they are judged very crucially. I will make sure that this is something I focus on when beginning to teach. Even though the teaching part itself is important, if you are not professional you will never succeed in the education field.

Artifacts: Website, Blog

Reflection on NETS-T Standard 4

http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

Standard four says that teachers should “Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility”.  The teacher should know what is going on locally and globally and teacher about those things.  Exhibiting legal and ethical behavior in the classroom is very crucial for teachers to do. Students are very attentive and notice things that are going on and then normally share them with other people. If the teacher practices what he or she preaches, the students are likely to follow in the same footsteps. The teacher needs to teach about the different copyright laws and the proper way to document sources. They need to know that if they get it from the internet that it is not their work, it is someone else's work and they need to be acknowledged for it. The teacher needs to be able to address the diversity of the students. This can be done by doing multiple different things with the computer, rather than just one thing over and over. The teacher needs to model the right way to use technology and teach the students how to use it responsibly.  It would be very neat to have an assignment for the students to do that involves communicating with someone in a total different area and learn about their culture. The computer is a great tool to do this with. Of course, the teacher would have to make sure that this would not be harmful to the students or anything like that. I believe I will use these techniques in my classroom.

Artifacts Used: Website, Blogs

Reflection of NETS-T Standard 3

http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

Standard three states that teachers should “Model Digital-Age Work and Learning”.  I believe that this standard means that teachers should know how to use technology and demonstrate that he or she knows it. The teacher should be able to transfer what he or she already knows into something that is technologically based and use it in the classroom. Today teachers are having to write lesson plans on the computer and submit them that way, rather than handwriting them  out and bringing them to the principal. So teachers that are used to handwriting them have to adapt to writing them on the computer.  Also, there are programs out there like Turnitin.com that will check papers for plagiarism and that would be very beneficial for a teacher to learn how to use it. The teacher should be able to communicate with the students, parent and other people using technology. I believe that that means that teachers should be able to use email and also have their own websites so other people can view it. The parents and community members can view things that are going on in the classroom and view upcoming events if the teacher keeps an updated website. If the parents permit, the teacher can add pictures of his or her students and post the students creative work on the website. It is important for the teacher to stay in touch and involved with the parents of the students. They need to know what is going on in the classroom.  The teacher needs to know how to incorporate the use of current technology and emerging technology in the classroom.  As a future teacher, I plan to keep an updated website to let everyone know what is going on in the classroom and I plan to communicate with the parents on a regular basis.

Artifacts Used: Website, Blog, Turnitin

Reflection on NETS-T Standard 2

http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

Standard 2 states “Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments”.  I believe this standard means that as teachers, we need to incorporate the use of technology in the classroom. There are so many different things that can be incorporated in the classroom. Smart boards are becoming very popular in the classroom. The students can see everything the teacher is doing and it is clearer than the old projectors. In this standard, I believe that it says that teachers should have the students use technology to promote them to become active participants. By this, I think it means that teachers should have assignments where they research a topic or do an assignment online. They can be active participants in their grades and emails also. They can keep up to date with things that are going on in the classroom. Some students are visual learners so using things from the computer to show them would be great in their learning process. Being able to personalize the learning activities is very crucial in teaching because the teacher needs to get on the students level and figure out what they like and teach on that subject. Technology promotes a variety of different assignments. Students can take a virtual tour of something or research a topic. They can also play educational games or read books on the computer. All of these are good ways to use a range of diverse things dealing with technology in the classroom. Teachers need to learn how to develop digital-age teaching styles.

Artifacts Used: Blog, Concept Mapping, Online Quiz, Website, Video Assignment

Reflection on NETS-T Standard 1

http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

In standard one, it describes how teachers should teach students how to be creative and to think for themselves. Using technology in the classroom can promote students to explore things that are going on in the world around them.  Students should be able to use their abstract thoughts when using technology, which promotes creativity.  Technology is a great way for students to interact with other people.  As a teacher, we must use what we know to help teach students about different life experiences. We can advance students learning by telling them different subject matter and using technology in the classroom. Students learning and creativity can be achieved in either a face-to-face or a virtual environment. Today, students do so many different things on the computer. If we integrate technology in the classroom, it is a possible that the students would be more interested in what we are teaching. It is a proven fact that students pay more attention to the lesson if it is something they are really interested in. Social networking on the computer has to be the most popular thing for teenagers these days. If the teacher had a website for the students to communicate back and forth with other students using some kind of peer collaboration to do a project, the success or participation of the students would more than likely be higher. If we can relate to the students, they possibly can relate to the lesson.  Altogether, using technology can promote creativity and promote thinking among students.

Artifacts Used: Blog, Website

Introduction to the blogfolio

The blogfolio is a collection of classwork that I have done over the period of the semester. It is like a class portfolio but using a blog. Before entering IT365, I had never wrote a blog. I have learned so much about technology in this class.

We have done several assignments throughout the semester. Each of the assignments are part of my blogfolio. The first assignment we completed was writing a blog. We can use these in the classroom to communicate with parents and students. We made a concept map using the Inspiration software. This is a great tool when teaching your children who are visual learners. We used a variety of web tools. We made a class rubric,an online quiz, a worksheet, and a puzzle. Each of these tools can be used in the classroom in various ways. Another neat thing we created was a website. The website will be very beneficial in the classroom because it can let parents and students know what is going on in the class. We used Assistive Technology. These tools are great to use for students with disabilities. Also included in the blogfolio is a program called Turnitin. This program detects plagiarism. The last assignment included is the video assignment. Using a video in the classroom is very helpful because students learn better with real life things.

Artifact Links

Blog

Concept Map Using Inspiration

Rubric

OnlineQuiz
User Name: timothyded
Password: it-365

Worksheet

Puzzle

Web site

Assistive Technology

Turnitin

Video Assignment