Course Reflection

1. I fair under visioned what really came of this course. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect when this class started. I thought I was just going to learn about technology and how to incorporate it into my classroom. I learned much more than just that in this class. I learn how to manage a blog, set-up a wiki, and how to filter blogs. I didn't know that I would be getting a principal certification at the end of this. Plus, I didn't know that I would be doing an internship. I thought I would simply have a masters' degree and would improve my class. Now, I am going to be able to come out of this masters' degree with a vision for maybe being an administrator. I would have to say that this class has given me things that I am going to start using next year in my class. I want to move myself and my students above and beyond what technology has to offer, so that they will be successful in the future. 2. The things I have learned will be things that I use daily in my classroom. I teach Technology Engineering and want a way to incorporate as much technology into my classroom as possible. I am going to have my students set up their own blogs instead of writing information on paper. They will be able to keep record of the information I have given them. Plus, I won't have to grade papers. I will just be able to read their posts online in order to give them a grade. I plan on starting a class wiki, where we can research information about different topics and record our information on it. For example, I have a project where my students make dragsters and we race them. They will be able to record their times online, then we can determine class mean, median, and mode. I can also have my students research information on renewable energy resources and then my students can collaborate online to put together a document on the subjects. 3. I really don't feel like there was much that I didn't achieve. If I had to choose something that I didn't achieve, it would be a full understanding of what I am suppose to do in my internship. I feel like I am suppose to take on this completely different job instead of being a teacher. We don't have a technology director in our school. We have an IT guy, who fixes the computers and runs our internet, but that is all his job consists of. Our Assistant Superintendent would be the person we go to for software, so maybe it is his job that I should be modeling. His job just comes with so many dynamics that I didn't think it was what I was going to be doing. I am going to work well with my building principal and hopefully I can tie in the standards with the plan I came up with. I just want to do things right, so it scares me to think that I might have screwed up and failed. I am ready to succeed in this program. 4. I was very successful in carrying out the course assignments. They were very fulfilling to complete for me. I really enjoyed making the Animoto project, even though I didn't spend enough money to put all the text in it that I wanted. I also liked making a PowerPoint presentation and learning how to embed it onto my wiki. I have really enjoyed planning things out and looking at the next step in my life. I feel like the assignments taught me different concepts that I hadn't thought of before like copyright law, technology assessments, etc. I plan on using many concepts of this course to lead me in a different direction in my classroom, plus my internship is going to be so beneficial. I have already felt closer to my administration team, than I have in the past two years of teaching. I feel like they are going to help mold me into a great leader and it will make me successful in the future. 5. I feel like I am a technological person. I have a laptop, I-phone, I-pod, etc., but there are things I am missing that need to be addressed. I always feel like I can learn more, because technology is always evolving. If I was a writer, I would think that blogging would be great. I think it is great for my kids, but I am really not journal writing kind of person. I am a mathematical think it out and solve the problem kind of person. I always use wikipedia for projects, so to actually create my own wiki was amazing. I can't wait to use the concept in my classroom. I feel like I have more to offer the world than to just be a teacher. I want to help change the technological world around me, starting with teachers in my school. I want to help them create things to use in their classroom and to not be scared of change. I have a long mission ahead of me, but I feel like in the end it is going to be a successful one.