Final Blog Reflection-

At the beginning of the school year I was learning about what my Smart Board had to offer. I was also learning about blogging and how great it is to communicate with others in a different way. With the Smart Board I slowly integrated it into the things I was doing in my classroom. Now I am using it everyday for everything we do. The kids love it and they have expanded their role into explorers of their knowledge as well as independent reliable learners.
Over the past year I feel like I have expanded my knowledge on the Grappling’s Technology and Learning Spectrum, but I do not feel as though I have completely moved into the Transforming column. I feel that with a few years of practice and really exploring and modeling all that the Smart Board has to offer I will still be adapting my teaching of technology as a grow as a professional.
My class has moved from just using the computer lab to really effectively using our time in the computer lab. We do not just play games on the computer, but we have researched different things we were interested in, we have explored different web sites that can help our writing, we have used different software to produce different projects, and we have also used it to type final drafts of poetry and different pieces of writing to share with others.
In my Technology Plan at the beginning of the school year, I talked about initiating a pen pal cohort with another fellow’s class, but this unfortunately did not work out the way I would have liked for it to. Instead I set up a folder on the student share drive under myself, for each of my children to access, as well as other students in school to access. We were able to share our final, saved pieces with a pen pal class here at our own school. It was pretty cool because they could open up their pen pal’s folder here at school and read their pieces of writing and they could open up our pieces of writing and read them.
I believe over the past year I have shifted my thinking about technology and the integration of it into my classroom. I integrated real life things for students to work on, not just busy work. I encouraged and acknowledged my students to use higher-order thinking skills while using different software and programs that were available on the computer. They were able to construct their own knowledge and meaning by producing things that were useful to others as well as themselves. My students were active learners in their new technology skills.
My goal next year with the use of technology is to have a web page, designed by myself, that will be available for parents to access next year. I saw a few teachers do that this year and it was a great way to add to their classroom community. Within their webpage included: a class schedule, homework pages, as well as assignments, important dates, and special occasions, plus a weekly newsletter. Different teachers did different things. In order to access their different web pages you had to go through our schools’ web page. I know that this is something I wish I would have had time to do this past year, but I did not so why not set that as my technology goal for next year.

Stressed

Well...After the MAP ended my kids have been really chatty and it is taking a lot of time to redirect their thinking. We are working really hard on it though. I am also feeling quite overloaded with all of the papers and projects due for Fellows and for my class. There are so many things to do all of the time I just run on auto pilot most days. I am also stressed out in search for a job next year. I have had a few interviews here in the district....I really want to stay in Columbia and think there is a very good chance of that! One more blog left to do as well....=)