Course Reflection

Course Reflection

I can not believe that this course is already over! It seemed to fly by. I have learned several important skills and resources that I will be taking with me as I finish this class.

a. I feel that I learned the importance of being a connected educator. Before this class I was very uninterested and very against Twitter, but as I have completed the expectations for this course and have explored Twitter I have been really intrigued and interested in using Twitter as a resource for my growth as an educator. I have enjoyed reading posts and connecting to peers via this forum. The ISTE goals that I met through this course fit into the categories Designer, Facilitator and Collaborator. I think that this course has really provided me with the avenues to design high quality content for my students using technology. This new understanding will make it so I am better able to create differentiated instruction for all of my students. I think this idea ties into the idea that I have become a more effective Facilitator of technology for my students. Having high quality digital resources makes it so that I am able to facilitate their digital learning in a more productive way. Finally, I feel that this class has helped open the door for me to become a better Collaborator with not only people in my school, but in the educational community. I have established a PLN, which I had never had before. I have thoroughly enjoyed using Twitter and especially Twitter chats. I participated in the #5thchat and I had a great time and learned so many new resources and information that I would have never had access to in the past.

b. I think that the most important tool I learned about in this class was Screencasts. I can see myself creating and using screencasts for various reasons in my classroom. Creating them will be very useful for providing tutorials and information for both students and parents. I can see myself creating them to post on my classroom website. The other tool I can see myself using quite regularly is creating classroom videos. I want to create a series of videos based on our math standards to serve as an online homework help for students and parents. One of the biggest complaints we have in our grade level is that parents can not help their kids with math homework, so providing this resource would be incredibly useful. Another piece of learning I am very excited about is the idea of an in-class flipped classroom. I think that moving the Direct instruction piece of instruction to a center will make a very large difference in how I teach and am able to help students be successful. My class this year struggles with whole group instruction, to the point that I feel like I am talking to myself. I think that creating a library of skills will also make it so that students have the ability to revisit concepts that they need help with even if you are not around. Also the implication of not losing instruction in the event of a substitute is very appealing.

c. I plan to create and incorporate multimedia in various ways in my classroom in the future. I want to create a bank of screencasts and videos that I can post on my class website as a resource for parents and students alike. I feel that taking the time to create these videos will be very beneficial to my class and help a lot of my students. I would also like to incorporate more student created multimedia. I think teaching students how to use animoto would be a very interesting outlet for their creativity and also a great way to present new content. I also want to try flipping my classroom using the in class flip model. I think that this has been an aha moment for me and solves a problem I have been grappling with for most of the last two school years.